Edmonton jury selection process to be reviewed
A full week has been set aside next March to challenge the way juries are selected in Edmonton.
Earlier this month, the lawyer for Jeremy Newborn made an application challenging the way a jury pool was brought together, saying it included no aboriginal people.
Newborn, a man of aboriginal descent, is accused in a fatal beating on Edmonton’s LRT in late 2012.
He has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of John Hollar, 29. Newborn’s trial was originally set to start in Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench on Oct. 6.
The case was put over after defence lawyer Simon Renouf challenged the jury. The trial is now tentatively set to go ahead next June.
By that time, the judge may have issued a ruling on jury selection for the case.
Dispute over jury selection
According to Renouf’s notice of motion earlier this month, 186 people were called for jury selection on the day the trail was to begin.
At Renouf’s request, Newborn’s mother Delores Sanderson walked among the potential jurors waiting on the third floor of the courthouse. She determined that not one of them was aboriginal.
Given that about 60,000 people, or six per cent of Edmonton residents, are of aboriginal descent, Renouf contends that it is “almost statistically impossible” for a randomly selected group of people not to contain a single aboriginal person.
Renouf said the odds of this happening are about one in 250,000. The lack of diversity in last week’s pool of potential jurors suggests to him there is a systemic problem.
