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Staying on pace Jury selection still could be completed Friday
Posted: Thursday May 18, 2000 08:37 AM
ATLANTA (AP) -- After three days of questioning, 27 potential jurors have been qualified for the jury in the Ray Lewis murder trial. The pool increased Wednesday from 14 to 27 as attorneys questioned more than two dozen people out of the 88 still remaining to be interviewed. Lewis, a Baltimore Ravens linebacker and three-time All-Pro, and two co-defendants, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting, are charged in the Jan. 31 stabbing deaths of Jacinth "Shorty" Baker, 21, and Richard Lollar, 24, during a brawl following a post-Super Bowl party. Questioning of potential jurors, which began Monday, continues Thursday in Fulton County Superior Court in an effort to get a jury of 12 and either four or six alternates. At the current pace, a jury could be in place by Friday afternoon. Lawyers have to interview at least 46 potential jurors if the judge decides she wants four alternates in addition to the 12-person jury. If she wants six alternates, the lawyers have to interview at least 54. The (Baltimore) Sun reported Thursday that an attorney for one of Lewis' co-defendants plans to ask the judge to override prosecutors and grant immunity, if necessary, to a witness whose testimony the lawyer believes could help clear his client. Carlos Stafford, a Houston law student who was among those riding in Lewis' limousine the night of the killings, has not talked to anyone and will remain silent unless he is granted immunity, his lawyer, Dwight Thomas, told The Sun. Bruce Harvey, a lawyer for Oakley, said the testimony of Stafford and another passenger, Kwame King, could help clear his client. Although Judge Alice D. Bonner refused earlier this month to grant immunity to King and Stafford, Harvey told The Sun he intends to pursue the matter. Bonner has said she may reconsider the issue if the men refused to testify on the grounds it may incriminate them. Thomas, Stafford's lawyer, would not say what Stafford saw. "He would be truthful in his testimony," Thomas said. '" don't know how the jury will view it and weigh it. It might be good for some and bad for others. I don't know."
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