CNN
—
On Wednesday, a qualified pool of 45 prospective jurors was secured for the jury selection process in the Sean “Diddy” Combs sex-trafficking trial.
The final part of jury selection is set for Friday when court resumes at 9 a.m. ET. Attorneys for each side will take turns executing peremptory strikes on jurors they want eliminated from the pool to ultimately select and seat a panel of 12 and 6 alternates.
Prosecutors will have six strikes and Combs’ defense team will have 10 until they seat 12 jurors. Both sides have three strikes for alternates.
Combs was again present in the courtroom on Wednesday alongside his attorneys.
Earlier on Wednesday, the parties agreed to wait to select the panel on Friday, meaning court will not be held on Thursday.
Both sides agreed it would be more efficient to wait until Friday because some qualified jurors might want to back out because of the time commitment the trial will entail. CNN previously reported that the trial is expected to take several weeks.
Many of the prospective jurors who qualified for the final pool have said they’d seen some media coverage of the allegations or had seen the hotel surveillance footage of Combs dragging and kicking his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
Once finalized, the jury will be sworn in on Monday ahead of opening statements.
Following those opening statements, prosecutors indicated that they plan to put on two witnesses briefly on Monday. They said their third witness is expected to take most of the rest of the week.
