2 more jurors picked in Cosby trial

After a showdown over race, the jury picked to decide Bill Cosby's fate in the first big trial of the #MeToo era ended up mirroring the gender and racial makeup of the group that deadlocked past year: seven men and five women - 10 white, two black.

The man said Thursday he believes he can set aside what he's heard about the Cosby case, but hesitated and couldn't guarantee it when pressed by the judge.

Cosby's first trial ended with a hung jury in June.

Jackson's testimony is crucial to a defense plan to portray Constand as a greedy liar.

Constand's lawyer has said Marguerite Jackson isn't telling the truth. O'Neill did not explain his change of heart but issued one caveat, saying he could revisit her testimony after Constand takes the stand.

Cosby's lawyers have also used two strikes, both to block white women from serving.

He said he will not rule on that until it is brought up at the retrial. Once the jury is assembled, they will be sequestered for the duration of the trial and deliberations, which could last a month. The young man said he had no knowledge of Cosby's case.

Jurors this time were asked whether they had formed opinions about the comedian's guilt or innocence, whether they were already too influenced by the #MeToo movement and whether they or a close family member had been a victim of sexual assault.

Jury selection was delayed for several hours after Cosby's attorneys alleged prosecutors did not pick a black woman to the main panel because of her race.

Just 10 of about 240 prospective jurors questioned on the first three days of jury selection were black, or about 4.2 percent.

Cosby's new defense team - led by attorney Tom Mesereau - separately accused prosecutors of attempting to deliberately exclude both older white men and African-Americans from the panel during the selection process.

The first juror picked on Monday said he did not know anything about Cosby's case.

The defense didn't reveal in open court what they claim had been said, but sought to use the remark as evidence that prosecutors illegally removed the woman from the jury pool on the basis of her race.

Prosecutors and the defense settled Wednesday on the last five of the 12 jurors who will sit in judgment of the 80-year-old comedian.

Media lawyers had challenged an arrangement that forced reporters to watch the group questioning part of jury selection on a closed-circuit feed from another courtroom. The camera showed the judge, prosecutors and defence lawyers, but not potential jurors who were being questioned as a group.

Cosby's lawyers objected to having reporters in the courtroom because they feared it could hurt their ability to find a fair and impartial jury.

Cosby has pleaded not guilty to charges he drugged and molested Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. She was 29 at the time and served as director of operations for the university's women's basketball team.

The final jury includes seven men and five women from Pennsylvania's Montgomery County, a suburban area north of Philadelphia.

All but one of the people in the initial group of potential jurors said they were aware of the #MeToo movement or the allegations it spurred against powerful entertainment figures. The lone person who claimed ignorance on #MeToo was not invited back.