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Jury set in ‘Unite the Right’ civil trial

Jury set in ‘Unite the Right’ civil trial

(CNN)A jury has been selected in the civil trial that will decide if organizers behind the August 2017, “Unite the Right” rally will be held responsible for the violence that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The plaintiffs, who include town residents and counterprotesters injured in two days of clashes, contend the organizers of the rally engaged in a conspiracy. The 9 individuals are seeking “compensatory and statutory” damages for physical and emotional injuries they suffered.

      The twelve jurors were selected after being grilled with questions over three days.

        Charlottesville civil trial will explore where free speech becomes conspiracy to commit violence

        Judge Norman Moon asked probing questions to jurors that tried to expose their feelings about racism, the Black Lives Matter movement, Antifa, White nationalism and that tried especially to determine if they had already decided who was responsible for the violence that took place.

          Attorneys for both sides sent questions to Moon to help weed out potential jurors. Moon dismissed many potential jurors who couldn’t get out of work, ran their own businesses, and couldn’t be replaced, or had physical hardships, like recovering from Covid-19.

          Jurors to decide whether Charlottesville Unite the Right rally organizers prepared for a violent showdown from the start

          And those dismissals were in addition to anyone Moon felt was too biased to sit on the jury, an issue that came up repeatedly during selection.

            “It took a little longer than expected, but that’s all right,” said Moon of the jury as he dismissed the court for the day.

            With the jury now in place, opening statements are slated to start Thursday morning at 9 a.m., according to Moon.

            Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/YS8_qVYpUFM/index.html