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Jury in Atlanta Trial Completed; First Defendant Pleads Not Guilty

December 3, 1958
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A jury was completed today to try five men accused of bombing the Jewish Temple here last October 12, but not without considerable dispute over qualifications of prospective jurors.

Attorneys for the defense exhausted all of the 20 challenges to which they were entitled. The state used all but one of its ten challenges before 12 jurors were seated.

The state accepted a bus operator who said he was a former member of the Ku Klux Klan as a jury member. Observers speculated that the former Klansman was less objectionable to the prosecution than others coming up on the jury list.

A number of prospective jurors were excused because they said they opposed a death penalty against the accused. The first defendant ordered to be tried was George A. Bright, 31 years old. He entered a plea of not guilty. The other four will be tried later.

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