Juror admits bias in Hood trial, Gets Excused

In Athens, a juror has been removed from the Jamie Hood trial because of admitted bias against the defendant.

Due to pretrial publicity in the high profile murder case, all of the jurors and their alternates were selected from Elbert County.

Wednesday was day six of the trial of the man who has admitted to shooting and killed an Athens-Clarke County police officer in March 2011.

According to a report in the Athens-Banner Herald, the juror who was removed from the trial Wednesday passed a note to the judge explaining she could no longer impartially sit in judgment Hood after the prosecution showed photos of the body of officer Buddy Christian’s body sitting in his police cruiser.

The woman later told the judge nothing would change her mind that she believed Hood was guilty and she did not want to cause a mistrial.

Neither prosecutors nor Hood, who is representing himself, requested a mistrial due to the juror being excused.

That juror was the second to be excused due to their beliefs about Hood’s guilt or innocence.

On Friday, another female juror was excused after the judge learned she made comments in front of other jurors about how she believed Hood was guilty.

Only three alternate jurors remain for the trial expected to take another two weeks or more to complete.
They are being sequestered at an Athens hotel.