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| Sen. Harri Anne Smith |
Sen. Harri Anne Smith, I-Slocomb, is asking that jurors in the next bingo trial come from the entire Middle District, which would include Smith's Wiregrass Senate district.
Jurors in the first trial -- which resulted in a mistrial -- were selected only from the northern portion of the court district. But lawyer Jim Parkman said to satisfy Smith's right to a jury of her "peers" they should include the Wiregrass counties.
"Defendant Smith's right to an impartial jury is best met by randomly selecting jurors from the Middle District as a whole," Parkman wrote in a motion filed with the court. In addition, many of the alleged events in the case took place in Houston County, Parkman wrote.
Smith and eight others were accused of offering or accepting bribes in connection with a 2010 gambling bill. The jury acquitted two defendants and returned a combination of not guilty verdicts and split decisions on the other defendants. The second trial is scheduled for January.
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