Jury panelist: Kilpatrick defendants 'bad'

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DETROIT, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Jury selection is proceeding slowly in Kwame Kilpatrick's corruption trial, with many jurors critical of the former Detroit mayor and his co-defendants.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds wants to assemble a panel of 66 potential jurors, The Detroit News reported. By the end of Friday, after two days of jury selection, 18 jurors had survived the first cut and 11 had been dismissed.

Defense lawyers say the pool of jurors summoned for the trial has too few blacks. But they did not object to the dismissal of the only black man called so far, who referred to Kilpatrick, his father and the other defendants as "dumb, dumb, dumb."

"They are bad people," he said on his questionnaire.

Another potential juror, a white man, was dismissed after saying Kirkpatrick had abused his power as mayor.

The former mayor, his father, Bernard Kilpatrick, contractor Bobby Ferguson and Victor Mercado, former head of the Detroit water system, are charged with taking part in a bribery and kickback scheme.