The Latest on jury selection in the murder trial of Amber Guyger, a white former Texas police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man in his own home (all times local):
1:45 p.m.
Prosecutors have begun questioning potential jurors in the murder trial of a white former police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black neighbor in his own home.
CORRECTS DATE TO SEPT. 13 -Fired Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger (center) arrives for jury selection in her murder trial at the Frank Crowley Courthouse in downtown Dallas, Friday, Sept. 13, 2019. Guyger shot and killing Botham Jean, an unarmed man in his own apartment last year. (Tom FoxThe Dallas Morning News via AP)
The 220 potential jurors were being asked Friday whether they would look at the case differently because Amber Guyger was a police officer when she fatally shot Botham Jean last year.
Some would-be jurors said she should be held to a higher standard. Others said they couldn't convict her because she was a Dallas police officer.
The demographic of the jury will be closely watched. Assistant District Attorney Jason Fine asked how many people knew "nothing" about Guyger's case, and only about a dozen raised their hands.
Attorneys for the former Dallas police officer requested in July that her trial be moved to another county.
6:20 a.m.
Jury selection is set to resume in the murder trial of a white former Texas police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man inside his own apartment last year.
Potential jurors in Amber Guyger's trial for the killing of Botham Jean are expected to return to a Dallas courthouse Friday morning. They will be questioned by prosecutors, defense attorneys and the judge about their ability to serve. The demographics of the jury will be closely watched in the high-profile case that has ignited fierce debate over race, politics and policing.
Guyger shot and killed Jean in the apartment building where they both lived last September. She told investigators that she confused Jean's apartment with her own.
Attorneys for the former Dallas police officer requested in July that her trial be moved to another county.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination.
While U.S. officials believe Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death — which came soon before the Russian president's reelection — or directly ordered it, according to the official.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
Soon after Navalny’s death, U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of directly ordering it.
At the time, Biden said the U.S. did not know exactly what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”
Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated.
He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.
In March, a month after Navalny’s death, Putin won a landslide reelection for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt.
The Wall Street Journal first reported about the U.S. intelligence determination.
FILE - Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking during his interview to the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 18, 2017. U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't order the death of Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, in February of 2024. An official says the U.S. intelligence community has found "no smoking gun" that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death or directly ordered it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
