Jury selection in underwear bomber case to begin

[SpartanDem]

Source: Detroit Free Press

The pretrial feuding is over. The under­wear bomber case that has sparked international attention is ready for trial, a federal judge ordered today.

On Wednesday, jury selection will get under way in the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a self-proclaimed al-Qaida operative who will go on trial for allegedly trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner with a bomb hidden in his underwear on Christmas Day 2009. Roughly 250 potential jurors will report to the federal courthouse in downtown Detroit on Wednesday morning to fill out questionnaires and learn about the case.


In anticipation of the highly anticipated terror trial, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds today issued a nine-page order explaining how the trial will run, and what kind of contact they can have with the jurors.


Given the intense media and public interest in the case, Edmunds ordered that the jurors remain anonymous, unlike in most criminal cases, where the names and hometowns of jurors are released in open court. Sketch artists also are prohibited from drawing any facial or hair features that could reveal the identity of the jurors, Edmunds ruled.



Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20110909/NEWS01/110909019/Jury-selection-underwear-bomber-case-begin?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

[Downwinder]

1. Wonder if Kurt Haskell will testify.

[KansDem]

4. Or the "well-dressed man" who got him on the flight without a passport...

Wonder if they got his name during their investigation.

[dtexdem]

2. When will the lawyers file their briefs?

;-)

[Hubert Flottz]

3. I wonder where they will find twelve jurors that don't know anything about underwear?

Or Pampers...