A jury has been selected in the trial of the first of six police officers charged in a black man's death that triggered rioting and fueled a US debate on police brutality and race relations.
Opening arguments in the trial of Officer William Porter could begin as early as Wednesday (local time) after the panel of eight black and four white jurors was chosen in Baltimore City Circuit Court, a court spokeswoman said.
The main jury consisted of four men and eight women. Of the four male alternates, three were white and one was black, the spokeswoman said.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers were allowed four peremptory dismissals before selecting a panel of 12 jurors and a number of alternates.
The jurors' identities will be shielded, and Judge Barry Williams has said the trial will run no later than December 17.
The death in April of Freddie Gray, 25, followed police killings of black men in other cities, including New York and Ferguson, Missouri. The deaths gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement, which has staged more than year of mostly peaceful protests across the United States.
Porter, 26, faces charges including manslaughter, second-degree assault and misconduct in office. Gray died from a spinal injury suffered in the back of a police van after he was taken into custody for fleeing an officer and possessing a knife.
Baltimore officials imposed a curfew, and National Guard troops were called in to quell rioting and arson that followed Gray's death. Porter's lawyers have unsuccessfully sought to have the trial moved from Baltimore, saying that intense publicity prevented impaneling an impartial jury.
The other five officers are charged with offenses ranging from misconduct to second-degree murder.
Under initial questioning, prospective jurors have all said they were aware of the Gray case and the unrest that followed. About half have been victims of crime or had run-ins with the law, and two have said they had known Gray.
