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Howard’s (Quick) End

Posted Feb 16, 2007 by Anthony McCartney

Updated Feb 16, 2007 at 10:45 AM

10:28 a.m.

A drug court graduation is set to start at 11 a.m, and court for John Evander Couey was supposed to wrap up this morning by 10:30 a.m. Judge Ric Howard managed to clear the room two minutes early.

He ran through 37 potential jurors in under an hour, questioning them just slightly faster than a professional auctioneer.

The result is that four people were eliminated from the jury pool, all for hardship issues.

One woman even brought a letter from her employer to get her out of jury service.

The pool now stands at 33. It’s far better off than I was expecting. I worried that court this morning was going to look like it did in Tavares, where potential jurors dropped like flies and within an hour, the trial had to be postponed.

There are still a few people in the pool who clearly don’t want to serve. And a couple who might be a little over zealous to get seated on the panel.

The court is looking to get 75 people into the jury pool before it begins a second round of questioning on Feb. 26. Court in Miami is closed Monday for President’s Day, so they only have four days to reach the magic number.

Even though court is done for the day, I’ll be posting for a bit longer. There were some questions I have yet to answer. I’ll also be posting a Podcast summing up the week and looking at what might happen next week. That’ll be available in a few hours.

For now, court is in recess. I’ll be back in the courtroom Tuesday morning at about 8:30 a.m.

If any news crops up over the weekend, I’ll be sure to get it up on TBO immediately. And check back over the next couple hours—I’ll be catching up on some unanswered questions.