The jury selection has begun in the federal trial against disgraced singer R. Kelly.
“This is an issue of potential jurors possessing a mountain of information about the specific allegations in this case and the witnesses’ stories that will play center stage at this trial and may or may not be admissible,” Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean wrote. “Allowing an individual to sit on this jury who has seen ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ is no different than allowing a juror to sit on the jury who was permitted to preview the discovery in this case.”
R. Kelly’s team asked the judge to dismiss anyone who had seen the Surviving R. Kelly documentary. U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber rejected that request to ask jurors but Kelly’s team were allowed to ask them how much of the documentary they had watched, what they could recall about it and if they believed they could be impartial.
Of the 60 potential jurors, over 30 survived the first round of questioning.
[social_warfare]