ATLANTA — Seating a jury can be difficult in any case -- let alone one of the most high profile cases in the country. But 12 men and women in Fulton County will eventually be asked to weigh in on the charges against former President Donald Trump if the case goes to trial.
The former president and 18 others are accused of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state to President Joe Biden. Both experts and Fulton Count residents said it will be a tall order to find people who can truly be impartial in the case to serve.
"Yeah, it's going to be hard to find people who haven't followed any of what's going on. I mean, I suppose they're out there, but no one I know," one Fulton County resident said.
People around town Friday said they don't envy the attorneys who will have to comb the county to find them.
"It's going to be impossible, but they're paid to do it and they do it all the time," he assed.
About 900 potential jurors were called to the courtroom this fall for the trial of two co-conspirators in the case before those defendants plead guilty. And 900 more could be called if the former president goes to trial.
"I think it's going to be easier than folks think," said Jury Consultant Madeline Summerville.
She said the attention on the case will make it difficult, but not impossible to find an impartial jury.
"The qualifying factor of whether someone can sit on a jury is if they come in leaning too strongly in one direction or another and two, whether they've prejudged the facts of the case. So, when there is a high profile case like this, it's super easy for that to be a problem," said Summerville.
Both the defense and the prosecution can dismiss as many jurors as they want for perceived bias in the case, so she said most juries end up down the middle.
"You end up with a moderate jury. And what's cool with every jury that I have talked to is that they take it really seriously. They really care about their job and doing it right, so that restores a little bit of faith in the justice system," Summerville said.
11Alive also talked to someone who said he would be happy to hear the case if he was called to do so.
"I'd personally, I would love to be on the jury, yeah, I wouldn't mind. Because there are a lot of truths and a lot of facts involved. It would be interesting," said Fulton County Resident Melvin Bert.
While Bert is optimistic about how fast a jury could be seated in the trial, Summerville said it can be difficult to find people who are able to miss months of work to hear evidence in complicated RICO cases.
It took 10 months to seat a trial in the YSL RICO case that's underway in Fulton County right now.