Criminal Law
Judge Plans to Pool 1,000 For Jury Selection in the 2nd Ahmaud Arbery Trial
The federal judge presiding over the upcoming hate crimes trial of three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery said Monday she plans to summon a jury pool of roughly 1,000 people scattered across an expansive area that covers 43 Georgia counties.
U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood told prosecutors and defense attorneys at a pretrial hearing that she was granting their joint request to cast a wider net for potential jurors.
Jury selection in the federal case is scheduled to begin Feb. 7. Attorneys had argued in legal filings it could be tough to seat an impartial federal jury so soon after the same three defendants were found guilty of murder in state court the day before Thanksgiving.
