A jury was empaneled and sworn in on Thursday, Sept. 25 in the Desmonte Leonard murder trial after three-and-a-half days of jury selection.
Twelve jurors and four alternates were seated in the afternoon.
During the morning, defense attorney Susan James continued her objections, from the previous day, to the way the jury was being chosen.
James said capital cases are the only cases where the jury has trouble with the punishment.
"Knowing what the potential punishment is in death cases is prejudicial," James said.
James also objected to the manner in which the jury was being selected, specifically the alternates.
After striking three qualified jurors for medical reasons on Wednesday Sept. 24, the court had qualified 59 jurors.
Then the court randomly selected 45 from the jury pool, leaving 36 people to be considered for the jury and leaving the rest as alternates.
"There were six African Americans, five of which were placed in the alternate pool," James said. "We should have been allowed to strike from the entire group of 59."
James asked the court for a mistrial.
District Attorney Robert Treese responded saying that there is nothing that says there has to be a specific percent of a group represented on a jury.
"It just has to be a fair representation," Treese said.
James' motion was denied.
The seated jury was made up of 10 women; eight white, one Hispanic and one black; and six men; three white and three black.
Judge Jacob A. Walker instructed the jury not to read anything or talk to anyone about the case.
After the jury had left for the day, defense attorneys sought to have one of their expert witness certified by the court.
Dr. Lauren Reba-Harrelson, a forensic psychologist, was called by the defense to testify as an expert on the mental-state of Leonard.
Leonard underwent psychological testing by Reba-Harrelson over the summer.
"(Leonard) has clinically significant symptoms with depression and anxiety," Reba-Harrelson said.
Reba-Harrelson told the court Leonard suffered a gunshot wound in 2008 in the abdomen.
"Since the time of his shooting he has had a hyper-awareness and sensitivity to his torso region," Reba-Harrelson said.
Defense attorneys said Leonard was claiming self-defense in the June 2012 shooting.
Self-defense under the law requires a person to have reasonable fear of his or her life, according to Treese.
Leonard feared for his life on the night of the shooting because of his previous injury, according to defense attorneys and Reba-Harrelson.
Treese objected to the testimony.
"Reasonable fear has to be based on an objective standard," Treese said.
Walker said he would allow the testimony from Reba-Harrelson as long as questioning did not go into Leonard's mental capacity.
Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Friday, Sept. 26, at 1 p.m.
James said she expects opening arguments to take an hour from both sides.
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