In a preface of the long trial to come, lawyers in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating trial ground through part of jury selection Tuesday morning.
It took more than three hours to question 13 potential jurors, with Fulton Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter frequently admonishing the lawyers for the dozen defendants to keep it short at risk of going late into the night. At one point, criticized by a couple of attorneys who said they felt the judge was biasing potential jurors against them, Baxter agreed he should “tone it down a little” but added, “I’m just trying to control this case … which may be months off at the rate we’re going.”
The sheer scale of the case was evident in the length of the indictment, which took several hours to read aloud to the potential jurors the day before.
The questions by lawyers for the defense attempted to surface any racial animus. They also got at experience with employee evaluations, any interactions with teachers or tests and the ability to keep the cases against the dozen defendants straight, since a separate verdict is required in each.
One man — they were all anonymous — who is an operations manager supervising 25 people, said he thought he could segregate the cases and that he could be fair even if he was frustrated with the apparent breakdown in government controls that led to the weighty cheating indictment. “It seems like a big mess,” he said.
Only a handful of prospective jurors avoided a grilling by defense lawyers. Among them was a young man with a ponytail who takes loss reports for an insurance company. He said he believes prosecutors do their best to present good cases and also that African-Americans may not get fair trials in some parts of the country.
Asked by a prosecutor if there was any reason he could not be fair as a juror in the trial, expected to last four months, his response elicited laughter from the lawyers.
“I wish I could think of one.”
About the Author
