First Phase of Jury Selection Begins in Rapper’s Murder Trial

About 60 prospective panelists made it through the first phase of jury selection on Thursday in the murder trial of Snoop Doggy Dogg--one of America’s best known rappers--and two co-defendants.

“It is what we call a ‘high-profile’ case,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul Flynn told nearly 100 potential panelists, some of whom groaned, as the morning began. By midafternoon, about 40 of them had been dismissed after claiming it would be a hardship to serve on a trial that could last six to eight weeks.

“Hopefully, we don’t have to worry about locking people up in hotel rooms,” the judge told the pool of prospective jurors. “You don’t have to worry about that in this case,” he added, referring to the sequestration of the O.J. Simpson jury. Two hundred more potential panelists are expected to be screened on Tuesday, when jury selection resumes.

Snoop Doggy Dogg, 24, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, his former bodyguard McKinley Lee and friend Sean Abrams are accused of murder in connection with the Aug. 25, 1993, shooting death of Philip Woldemariam, 20, in a West Los Angeles park.