THIS MORNING: Day 1 of the racketeering case against Robert Kelly aka R. Kelly begins today with jury selection in New York. We are outside of the federal court in Brooklyn waiting to head in. @CourtTV @grinsli
Kelly faces 9 federal counts in New York for alleged sex abuse, exploitation of children, forced labor, child pornography, bribery & trafficking. This is one of several pending cases against him across the country—this is the first one up to go forward.
R. KELLY JURY SELECTION UPDATE: The members of the jury pool are anonymous even to the judge & attorneys. First round of potential jurors were questioned earlier.
Three claimed they’ve changed their minds since last month on whether they could presume Kelly innocent. @CourtTV
Goal of jury selection is to find a pool of 40 qualified people, then the federal prosecutors and Kelly’s defense attorneys can exercise their peremptory strikes. Final jury panel for this estimated 6 wk trial will be 12 jurors, 6 alternates. @CourtTV
courttv.com/news/r-kelly-s…
R. KELLY TRIAL UPDATE: Court is in a lunch break, around 15 people were individually questioned about their schedules and ability to be fair. #RKelly’s defense team also wanted potential jurors to be asked about their response to homosexuality potentially being part of this case.
Jury selection in the sex abuse/trafficking trial of #RKelly has ended for the day. A new pool of potential jurors will return in the morning.
Approximately 25 ppl were cleared to return for the final round of voir dire for the #RKellyTrial. Updates from the day on @CourtTV
Judge: You thought this was a case involving a famed cartoonist? Was it Walt Kelly?
Potential Juror: No I thought it was R. Crumb from 40 years ago.
***
This potential juror was kept today.
#juryselection #RKellyTrial
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