Protesters gathered outside a hearing for former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle on Tuesday. The hearing, which continues today, will determine if his murder trial will be moved out of Alameda County. Defense attorney Michael Rains filed a motion for a change in venue believing that his client cannot receive a fair trial based on the findings of a potential jury survey the defense commissioned. Mehserle will stand trial for the shooting death of BART passenger Oscar Grant early on New Year's morning of this year.
Jury consultant Craig New from Portland, Oregon said the survey provided to 400 of Alameda County's residents showed that 98 percent of those polled knew about Mehserle’s case. 82 percent of the respondents fear violence could occur if Mehserleis is found not guilty, and that 67.4 percent of the people knew the four facts presented in the questionnaire.
Rains’s argued these findings would prevent his client from receiving a fair trial. The jury consultant also highlighted findings that 80 percent of African Americans felt Mehserle is probably or have no doubt that he is guilty of murder. Only 5.4 percent of black respondents felt Mehserle is not guilty of murder. By comparison the survey showed that 33.1 percent of whites felt Mehserle is not guilty of murder. Craig New's said these number are astronomically high, something he has never seen in previous criminal cases he has worked on.
New's also went on to share some of the comments made by the interviewees such as “one less black person in this city is alright with me.” This statement caused the people in the court— mostly composed of African Americans— to gasp in shock. Judge Morris Jacobson quickly told Rains there was no need for his witness to share disturbing comments like those since he is already familiar with the survey.
Alameda County prosecutor David Stein questioned New about why Rains had not discussed his pay rate, or if this was a pro bono case New took on for Mehserle. Stein attacked the consultant- who was brought on board by the defense just a week and a half ago to fill in for their ailing pollster- by attempting to raise doubts about New's readiness to offer an expert opinion on the case. The prosecutor asked if New had the chance to read the papers Rains brought to the courtroom—which consisted of thousands of news report on this case. New conceded he had not read the papers provided by Rains but read 30 articles on his own.
Stein was able to get New to admit he had not he had not seen the video of the shooting provided by Rains to the court until Monday night—a day before the hearing. The consultant insisted that making the video of the shooting available to the public taints the potential jury pool, preventing Mehserle from having a fair trial.
The hearing will continue Wednesday at noon and Stein will continue to question Jury Consultant Craig New. Judge Jacobson prohibited both parties from talking to the press.