From [HERE] and [HERE] Another mostly white jury was seated this afternoon in the trial of a white Detroit police officer, Joseph Weekley, charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Black 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones, who was shot during police raid more than four years ago. Weekley is a member of an elite Detroit police unit or "Special Response Team." 

The panel — made up of 10 women and 4 men, five of whom are African American — will hear opening statements in Joseph Weekley's retrial Thursday morning in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. Two of the jurors eventually will serve as alternates. This trial begins 15 months after Weekley’s first trial ended with the mostly white jury [11 white] unable to agree on a verdict. [MORE]

Lawyers for both sides and Wayne County Circuit Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway agreed on the jury after the dismissal of 68 potential jurors over three days of jury selection, including 25 dismissed today.

Weekley, 38, faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, a felony and careless discharge of a submachine gun causing death, a misdemeanor, in the fatal shooting of Aiyana. [MORE]

The night Aiyana Jones was killed, Detroit police's Special Response Team were searching for murder suspect, Chauncey Owens, who was engaged to Aiyana's aunt, in connection with the May 14, 2010, murder of 18-year-old Jerean Blake. Weekley was a member of this SWAT unit. After obtaining a search warrant, police kicked in the front door of the home on Lillibridge, where Owens was thought to be hiding. 

They threw a flashbang grenade into the downstairs flat of a multi-family home about 12:40 a.m. and Weekley was accused of firing the bullet that struck and killed the girl, who was sleeping on the couch in the front room of the home. The "flash-bang" light-emitting grenade was meant to distract suspects. 

Weekley was first through the door, with a shield in one hand and a gun in the other. He claims he accidentally pulled the trigger when Aiyana’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones, grabbed his submachine gun. She denies that she interfered in any way.

During Weekley’s first trial, a fellow officer, Shawn Stallard, testified that he did not see anyone struggle with Weekley. He said Detroit police are trained to push away anyone who tries to grab an officer’s gun or to move the weapon in a “J’’ shape to keep control of it.

Aiyana's family, represented by Geoffrey Feiger [in video] in a pending civil case, claims police attempted to cover up the fatal mistake from the very beginning.

Weekley told jurors: “I just feel devastated and depressed. I’ll never be the same, no.”

On the third day of deliberations, loud voices could be heard coming from the jury room. Jurors later told the judge they couldn’t reach a verdict. [MORE]