Race issues slow Cosby trial
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby’s lawyers alleged a member of the prosecution team made a disparaging remark Wednesday after a black woman was removed from consideration as a prospective juror in the comedian’s sexual assault retrial.
The 80-year-old’s comedian’s lawyers didn’t reveal in open court what they alleged had been said, but sought to use the remark as evidence that prosecutors illegally removed the woman from the jury pool due to of her race.
Prosecutors pushed back, noting two blacks have been already been seated as jurors. The judge said he didn’t believe the prosecution had any “discriminatory intent” but halted the third day of jury selection to consider the defence argument.
The jury so far consists of six whites and two blacks.
The battle over the juror’s removal highlighted a vast racial disparity in the suburban Philadelphia jury pool that’s limiting the number of black people available for consideration. Just 10 of 240 prospective jurors brought in on the first two days of jury selection were black, or about 4.2 per cent. The black population in Montgomery County is about 9.6 per cent black.
Cosby has pleaded not guilty to charges he drugged and molested Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He says the encounter with the former Temple University women’s basketball administrator was consensual.
Prosecutors plan to call as many as five additional accusers in a bid to portray Cosby — the former TV star once revered as “America’s Dad” for his family sitcom “The Cosby Show” — as a serial predator.