It was a slow day for me at court on Wednesday. The jury process when on out of sight of the public for half of the day, and when it became "public," there were so many potential jury members in the courtroom that there were literally added chairs put in the courtroom aisle to accommodate the large number of potential jurors. Only three journalists were allowed in the courtroom, and I wasn't one of these. So, I waited for enough jurors to be excluded that reporters would be allowed in, and it turned out that never occurred. I wasn't in a place to see the feed of the trial, so I missed the mini-opening statements. I'm hoping these are posted online somewhere, and I can review them soon.
I did find out that a few jurors were seated, and one of these seated jurors has a transgender family member, and has a transgender coworker. There were five potential jurors that were excluded for no stated reason -- both prosecution and defense are allowed to exclude twelve potential jurors each without explanation. Frankly, I don't recall which side excluded two and which side excluded three, but I do know that the total excluded for no stated reason was five.
Tomorrow, I'm expecting -- really hoping -- to be allowed into the courtroom's media section at approximately 8:00 AM MDT, while the jury selection process should be actually start for the day at approximately 8:30 AM. Again, space in the courtroom is going to be the deciding factor of when I can enter the courtroom to begin covering the trial from that position. I have a courtroom specific job I'm here to do, and actually I'd like to begin doing it.
The jury is expected to be seated in the morning. If that happens early enough in the morning, then the opening arguments could begin as early as 11:00 AM. If not in the late morning, then the opening arguments are expected to begin right after the noon meal break at approximately 1:30 PM.
If I'm not in the courtroom for the rest of the jury selection (I'd like to hear some of the questions being asked by both sides), I'll definitely be in the courtroom for opening arguments.
Well, that's what occurred today, and what's expected to happen tomorrow -- The formal trial is to begin very soon. |