Booking photos for the Oregon wildlife refuge standoff suspects from top left to bottom right: Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Shawna Cox, David Fry, Jeff Wayne Banta, Kenneth Medenback, Neil Wampler.
PORTLAND, Ore. – Jury selection starts Wednesday in the case against seven people who helped take over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge back in January.
Ammon Bundy, his brother Ryan, Shawna Cox, David Fry, Jeff Wayne Banta, Kenneth Medenback, and Neil Wampler are charged with conspiring to prevent federal employees from doing their jobs.
Federal Judge Anna Brown questioned jurors about religion, media consumption, social media exposure, jurors relationships with law enforcement officers and gun rights, particularly relating to the First and Second Amendments.
Potential jurors range from a wide swath of professions and backgrounds, including one who is homeless. Jurors are from all regions of the state, some live as far away as Ashland.
Brown told jurors that the defendants need a fair, unbiased trial, and that the selected jurors must listen, watch and judge only on the evidence presented.
In all, 60 potential jurors were summoned. Thirty-one attended jury selection Wednesday. Twenty-nine will attend tomorrow, with final jury selection happening Friday morning. The court will seat 20 total jurors, instead of 12, in case an alternate is needed later in the trial.
Brown says she expects the trial to last nine weeks, a serious commitment for many jurors.
The weeks-long occupation of the southeast Oregon wildlife refuge began Jan. 2 as a protest demanding the U.S. government allow local control of federal lands. It was also formed around two ranchers who were jailed for setting wildfires.
The Bundy brothers and Cox were arrested Jan. 26 in a traffic stop that ended in the fatal shooting of LaVoy Finicum, a spokesperson for the refuge occupation.
Many people left the refuge after the fatal shooting and Bundy's arrest. Fry and Banta were among the final four occupiers to surrender Feb. 11.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors agreed to dismiss
charges against internet broadcaster Pete Santilli.
His attorney argued Santilli never stayed overnight at the refuge and his broadcasts were protected by the First Amendment.