A judge swore in the jury on Thursday in the trial of a Nigerian man accused of a botched attempt to blow up a U.S. passenger plane on Christmas Day 2009 that al Qaeda said it instigated.
The 12-person panel in the trial, due to start next week, is comprised of three men and nine women, and includes a homemaker, a housekeeper, a nurse's aide and the wife of a Baptist pastor. Of the 12, only two are black.
Opening arguments in the case are scheduled to begin on Tuesday morning. Still up in the air was whether the defendant, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who wants to represent himself at trial, will present his own opening argument.
Abdulmutallab, 24, is charged with attempting to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear as Northwest Flight 253 approached Detroit from Amsterdam, in a botched bombing that led to a further tightening of U.S. aviation security.
