May 16, 2008 0:06

R Kelly trial: Day Five

Jury is selected and ready to go

The jury has been selected in full in the trial of R Kelly, and opening statements will begin Tuesday (May 20) at 11am.

Kelly is standing trial on child pornography charges after he allegedly filmed himself having sex with a minor sometime between January 1998 and November 2000.

The jury is now made up of a 68 year-old male white Romanian immigrant, a white female athletic trainer in her 20s, a white male college graduate, a white male who says he’s only vaguely aware of R Kelly, a white father of two who already believes Kelly is guilty, a white student who hopes to become a cop, a white male who has served on two previous juries, and a white man who wears an ‘Impeach Bush’ badge on his backpack.

There are four black members on the jury: a pastor’s wife, a Christian male, a female teacher’s aide and a trainee chef.

The four alternates on the jury are a white male in his 20s, a young Latino male who works for Apple, a retired sheriff’s deputy, and a middle aged black woman.

Race was at the centre of the issues today when defense attorneys objected to minorities being struck off the panel. A black man and an Asian woman were removed from the jury after the man lied about previous run-ins with the law, and the woman revealed she has health problems.

The trial is expected to last one week.

--By our New York staff.
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