So how much money have we wasted on these trials, I wonder. These guys are guilty of one thing…..stupidity.

A video game engineer, a retired hospital janitor and a law school graduate who works as a money manager were in the first lineup of prospective Miami-Dade jurors in a homegrown terrorism trial that got under way on Tuesday.

The process of selecting a jury in the trial of the Liberty City Six — a half-dozen Miami men charged with conspiring to provide support to al Qaeda to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower and several federal buildings — will be lengthy.

U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard will ask general biographical and terrorism-related questions of more than 200 jury candidates to determine their eligibility for the third trial of the six defendants.

Two previous trials ended with hung juries, because the panels could not agree on whether the men conspired with the global terrorist organization.

Lawyers for both sides will choose 12 jurors and six alternates for the trial, which is expected to last as long as two months.

The six defendants — a struggling group of construction laborers who tried to start a Liberty City religious group in a warehouse dubbed The Embassy — were arrested in June 2006. They were charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, destroy buildings — including the FBI’s Miami office — and break away from the United States.

More at the Miami Herald

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