Court Update: April 18

Today, April 18th, was the second day of jury selection in court proceedings for the Aston Park/sanctuary camp defendants who are currently facing trial on “felony littering” charges. 

Questions for potential jurors today came from the defense, and focused on potential jurors’ backgrounds, their thoughts on homelessness and what the City is doing to address it, and any history of or thoughts on protest.

The court excused three jurors “for cause,” which means that neither the defense nor the prosecution needed to use their peremptory challenges to excuse them. All attorneys have made frequent reference to the requirement of law that defendants be presumed innocent, with the burden of proof entirely on the state (defendants don’t have to put forth even one shred of evidence if they don’t want to), and when jurors can’t meet this requirement/can’t be impartial, they can be excused “for cause.”

Two other jurors were excused by the defense using peremptory challenges, and two more by the state using peremptory challenges. As court ended for the day there were 7 jurors in the box; a total of 15 need to be selected (12, plus 3 alternates).

Jury selection will begin again at 2 pm tomorrow. Court in the morning will deal with evidentiary matters; due to issues with his statements last week, investigator Sam DeGrave will once again answer questions in preliminary testimony.

Because the trial is still in jury selection, no supportive presence is yet requested! Thanks so much <3