Monday afternoon is a waiting game. The jurors waited in silence for over an hour for the court to review notes and decide on who to eliminate --and who they should not. It's a hard choice when you have so many to choose from and it's difficult to know who the best 12 will be.
Out of the 93, the defense has the option to strike out 10 possible jurors while the prosectors can eliminate 8 jurors. After these easy strikes, the rest of the eliminations have to be agreed upon by both sides.
Finally just before 3:00 pm, they were asked six jurors to take a sit in the stand. But the selection process is just beginning. They need to choose twelve jurors in the end and four alternates.
By the end of the day, 12 jurors had made the final cut, but they still need to choose 4 more. The only consolation is that once these 12 are chosen, there is no going back.
While the wait is as intense as any realty show elimination, the results are much less dramantic. In fact, when it came to the jurors it was hard to tell whether it was more disappointing to be asked to stay or if they felt relieved being asked to leave.
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Former State Senator John Ford was indicted in the FBI sting known as the Tennessee Waltz. This blog records his trial as it happens.
