Thread #2

Today, June 13th is DAY #4 of the scheduled State of Florida V. George Zimmerman case. Continuing jury selection. Yesterday the Court continued its preliminary questioning of prospective jurors, moving through 10 candidates by the end of the day.

As was the case previously, questions were limited to how much exposure the prospective juror had to the case through the media and other channels, as well as how that may have impacted their opinion of the case. There was also some speculation yesterday the defense believed a jury might be seated by the middle of next week. In addition, it was disclosed that a total of 71 jurors have been dismissed at this point.

Another 100 were summoned today, but are on call and do not have to report immediately to the court house. There was also a notable increase in questioning by both the State and the defense about the prospective juror’s use of social media. There was little of this on Monday, but it’s become an increasing focus of questioning since then. There also seemed to be an increased interest in whether the prospective jurors were active in church.

There is some really good statistical probability discussion in the prior day’s threads as both DiwataMan and John Galt continue to monitor the race and ethnicity of the jury pool. Given the nature of the Seminole County population at large, the absence of Hispanic potential jurists, and the high number of Black potential jurists, is quite an odd statistical anomaly. Example:

From 8:06-8:46, counted 57 potential jurors: 6 BM, 11 BF, 17 W, Hispanic or Asian M, 23 WH or A Females. SemCo is 11 percent black.

— Tony Pipitone (@TonyNBC6) June 10, 2013

If Tony Pipitone knows how to count, the filtration must have occurred before they sent out the summons, as opposed to manipulation via the questionnaire.

The probability of randomly selecting 17/57 from an 11% population is absurdly remote: 0.00006672766440335915

I wonder if Pipitone would be willing to discuss his observations further.

A few members of the media have also taken note of this. What’s factually causing the skew is unknown – But one thing is certain, it is statistically impossible for the current make-up of the “potential jurists” to be random; Meaning something, or some process, is skewing the ethnic and racial make-up of the public who received jury duty notifications. We’ll continue to monitor this aspect – it is very intriguing.