A federal judge in New Orleans said he expected to seat a jury to hear the retrial of David Warren, the former police officer who shot and killed a man outside a strip mall after Hurricane Katrina, as reported by The Associated Press.
It is the second trial that U.S. District Judge Lance Africk has held in three years for Warren, who was "guarding a second-floor police substation from a balcony where he shot 31-year-old Henry Glover on the ground in the chaotic aftermath of the 2005 storm," The AP also reported.
Warren was "serving a prison sentence for nearly 26 years when a federal appeals court overturned a manslaughter conviction handed down in 2010. Jurors that year saw and heard prejudicial evidence because Warren was tried with officers accused of a cover-up that included burning Glover's body in a car, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled," The AP also reported.
The weapons charge said Glover's death "involved actions constituting murder," according to courts records, as reported by The AP.
Jury selection began on Monday with a group of 47 people, as a "second jury pool was brought in on Tuesday," according to news reports.
Judge Africk said that Warren's case is unrelated to any other federal case, which may include police misconduct. He made mention of the fatal police shootings on the Danzinger bridge in New Orleans.
"This is not the Danziger Bridge case and has nothing to do with it," said the judge.
In 2011, the Justice Department issued a " scathing report alleging a pattern of discriminatory and unconstitutional conduct by police. The city and the Justice Department reached an agreement calling for sweeping changes in police policy, though the city has since objected to the potentially expensive agreement," as reported by The Associated Press.
