The latest from the Mirkarimi trial is that after an initial selection pool of 300, attorneys are having trouble finding a dozen jurors who are both available to serve and untainted by media reports or political feelings about Mirkarimi, and Judge Garrett Wong has ordered another batch to be sorted through.
The 300 were already whittled down to 100 based on hardship issues and a questionnaire, and courtroom voir dire hasn't yet begun. Wong has ordered dozens more to join the pool.
Prosecutors have not yet commented on defense attorney Lidia Stiglich's motion to move the trial out of the county, in order to ensure a fairer trial, but perhaps this next round of selection happening today will be the deciding factor for both the judge and the prosecution.
As legal analyst Dean Johnson tells ABC 7, "The fact that the defendant is someone who is well known shouldn't be allowed to turn this thing into something that's being treated almost like a capital case or a homicide case." Basically he's saying that S.F.'s court is spending a lot of time and resources on what would otherwise be a tiny domestic abuse trial, and since when has such a case required a move to another jurisdiction?
