Now, here's the court news you've all been waiting for; jury selection for R Kelly's impending child pornography trial was completed yesterday, despite arguments between the prosecution and defence lawyers, both of whom accused each other of trying to select jury members on racial grounds. The lawyers selected 12 jurors and four alternatives, eight of the 12 jurors being white and four black, whilst of the alternatives, two are black, one is Latino and one is white.
Kelly's lawyers objected to several attempts by the prosecution to have blacks dismissed from the potential list of jurors. One of the defence lawyers, Sam Adam Sr, said: "I think they're using these [challenges] to get rid of African Americans. [The prosecution have] used 50 per cent of their challenges on African Americans". Prosecutor Shauna Boliker countered this, saying: "[The defence have] used all six of their [challenges] on whites". The defence also requested for one juror to be dismissed after she said that she had been raped but could put the experience aside in order to fairly judge Kelly's case. The request was rejected by Judge Vincent Gaughan, who said: "She looked at Mr Kelly and said she could give him a fair trial".
Kelly himself kept his head down and scribbled notes during the process. However, when one of the men chosen as an alternative told the judge that pictures don't always reveal the whole truth, the singer looked up and nodded. So there you go.