Prosecutors are excluding blacks from Cosby jury, defense lawyers say
PITTSBURGH _ Defense lawyers on Tuesday accused prosecutors of systematically trying to exclude black people from the jury that will decide Bill Cosby's fate, as the court came close to filling out the full panel on the second day of jury selection.
The dispute broke out when Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele moved to block a black woman from filling the 12th and final seat on the jury.
"This is a systematic exclusion of African Americans," said defense lawyer Brian J. McMonagle, noting that the blocked juror was the second black woman whom prosecutors had struck from the juror pool.
Prosecutors replied that they had dismissed the woman for a reason unrelated to her race.
She is a former Pittsburgh police detective who faced charges as part of a "wide ranging scandal" involving the falsification of overtime records, said Assistant District Attorney M. Stewart Ryan.
Judge Steven T. O'Neill ruled that prosecutors had adequately described a "non-discriminatory reason" for striking the woman from the juror pool. He added, however, that the issue could be raised again if defense lawyers pursued an argument based on the statistical makeup of the race of the jury pool.
Cosby's lawyers _ and the entertainer himself _ have previously raised the idea that the charges against him are racially motivated.
_The Philadelphia Inquirer
