A 10-person jury was seated yesterday in the Cona case being tried by Attorney Mark Lanier, and five of the jurors are casino-hotel workers. It's a six person jury before Juge Higbee.
Interesting shenanigans during Voir Dire? During jury selecton Plaintiff's counsel asked the Court to address strikes by Merck's lawyers, claiming that race played a role in certain strikes. Merck struck three potential jurors, two of whom were African American. (What we call -- at least here in Georgia -- a Batson challenge). The Judge allowed the strikes.
After the issue was addressed, a Merck rep. denied that race played a role in striking two of the three black potential jurors. In various reports on the web, the Merck rep said "Merck would never do that" Riiiight.
The eight-woman, two-man jury now seated has one African American on the panel.
