Tyson Rape Trial Jury Nears Completion as Six Are Added

Prosecution and defense teams at Mike Tyson’s rape trial fell short of impaneling a 12-person, four-alternate jury Tuesday.

After the 10th and 11th jurors were selected at 6:20 p.m., Judge Patricia J. Gifford told attorneys that she was ready to begin interviewing the next group of 17 candidates.

But Vincent J. Fuller, Tyson’s lead attorney, objected. And chief prosecutor Greg Garrison buried his face in his hands.

Gifford then called a recess until this morning, indicating that she expected completion of jury selection quickly.

It is expected that opening statements will be presented Thursday, with final pretrial motions by both legal teams being heard this afternoon--assuming jury selection is complete by mid-day.

The 11 jurors include four women.

Two more black jurors were selected, apparently easing pretrial concerns expressed by members of Indianapolis’ black community and Tyson’s defense team that the jury pool did not include enough minority candidates.

There will be at least three black jurors weighing the former heavyweight boxing champion’s guilt or innocence on charges that could send him to prison for 63 years.

Tyson, 25, is charged with raping an 18-year-old Rhode Island beauty pageant contestant in his hotel room here last July 19. He says she consented to sex.

The two blacks chosen Tuesday included a 39-year-old woman who is an insurance underwriter and a 36-year-old unemployed man. A third black, a 24-year-old man, is a behavioral specialist for Indianapolis high school area students with learning disabilities. He was chosen Monday.

The remaining eight jurors, all white: A man, 32, who works in an auto body shop; a man, 31, truck driver; a woman, 34, cashier; a man, 21, operator of a silk-screen machine at a T-shirt business; a woman, 31, administrative assistant; a man, 37, computer company marketing representative; a man, 55, delivery truck driver; and a woman, 31, title company employee.

For the second day, questions asked of 32 candidates indicated what themes attorneys probably will pursue during the trial.

Fuller repeatedly asked variations of the same question: “Do you understand that consent (to have sex) on the part of a woman may be conveyed in a nonverbal manner?”

Garrison and Barbara Trathen, his assistant, asked numerous times: “If a person exercises poor judgment and goes to a bad part of town and is mugged, did the person who was mugged commit a crime?”

Tyson’s arrival and departure again was noisy and chaotic. As he left the courthouse Tuesday, a man in the crowd yelled: “Give ‘em hell, Mike!”

Tyson acknowledged the man only with a “V” sign.

But he had given another hand sign, a vulgar one, as he left Monday’s session. A man rushed to his car and blocked its progress while displaying a crudely drawn caricature of Tyson. Tyson extended his middle finger to the man as security officers grabbed him.

The man was detained, but not arrested.