First Day Produces No Jurors For Wife Beheading Trial
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- A full day of jury selection has produced no jurors for the second-degree murder trial of a New York television executive charged with beheading his wife.
Lawyers predicted going in Monday that it'll take longer than usual to seat a jury for Muzzammil Hassan's trial. The 2009 killing of 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan has received much media attention, in part because the couple ran a television station whose goal was to counter negative images of Muslims.
Potential jurors are being asked whether they have issues with the Pakistan-born Hassan's ethnicity, or the fact that he's Muslim and may claim self-defense.
Hassan wrote on a legal pad through much of the proceedings in Erie County Court in Buffalo.
Jury selection resumes Tuesday.
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