For Jennifer Hudson, this week is going to be anything but easy to go through. This Monday marks the beginning of the William Balfour trial, the Jennifer Hudson’s family killer. With the celebrity involved personally in the case, the trial is bound to be overcome with media and public focus.
This Monday, Chicago’s criminal court presided by Judge Charles Burns has initiated the proceedings in the William Balfour case. Balfour has murdered the Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and her 7 year old nephew.
As this Monday, the Judge starts screening the jurors, everyone expects Jennifer Hudson to participate at the trial every day. The potential 150 jurors have been required to ask questionnaires that involved even Jennifer Hudson’s carrier. Nine of the 66 questions tried to see if the jurors were likely to be affected by the celebrity’s involvement in the trial.
The problem is that having such a high caliber celebrity involved in the trial means jurors will have a hard time trying to remain unbiased. Jennifer Hudson is not only an Oscar winner and a Grammy performer, but the artist is on American Idol. Gerald Uelmen, O.J. Simpson murder trial defense attorney said:
“The risk is that jurors may be watching her rather than testifying witnesses, and they could be influence by how she reacts”. Uelmen also advised Jennifer Hudson “not to engage in any facial expressions or outbursts. That could be grounds for a mistrial”.
But keeping a poker face when on trial is the murdered of your close family isn’t exactly that easy to do. Particularly when Balfour’s defense attorneys claim the evidence against him is just circumstantial. On October 24, 2008 Jennifer Hudson’s mother Darnell Donerson was found dead in the family home with Jason Hudson’s body. A few days later, the seven year old nephew Julian King was found dead in a vehicle away from home.
William Balfour is Hudson’s sister estranged husband. Allegedly he has shot to death Jennifer Hudson’s family in a jealous rage rampage after he found out that his former wife was dating another man. Balfour faces the maximum sentence, prison for life, if the jurors find him guilty.
