Jury Selection Post-Poned Liberty City 7 Case

Jury selection has been put off in the retrial of the “Liberty City 7” who are accused of plotting to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower.^[1] The court action was delayed in Miami today because of an undisclosed family emergency involving 1 of the federal defense attorneys.^[2]

U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard agreed to postpone the start of juror questioning at the request of Ana Jhones, who represents the group's alleged leader, Narseal Batiste.^[3] The judge set a hearing for Wednesday to determine when the case can go forward.^[4]

The first trial of the “Seven" ended last month in a hung jury for six defendants and the acquittal of 1; they are accused of plotting with al-Qaida to destroy the Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices, although authorities acknowledge the alleged plans never got very far.^[5]

The second jury is to be anonymous to everyone except U.S. Marshals and the court and Lenard has imposed a gag order on all defense attorneys and prosecutors. Jury selection is expected to take at least two weeks.^[6]

Batiste testified at the first trial that he was never serious about any terrorism plots. Batiste insisted that he went along with a man he knew as Brother Mohammed - in reality an FBI informant pretending to be an al-Qaida operative - in hopes of conning him out of $50,000.^[7]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has talked extensively about this case in his terrorism crimes blog, which can be found here.

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^[1] AP Staff, Retrial in terrorism conspiracy case delayed, Associated Press Newswire, January 7, 2008, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.