The trial of Arthur Davies – the man accused of murdering the 1-year-old son of his then girlfriend – started yesterday with a pretrial motion that could have once-again delayed the over 5-year old trial.
The pretrial – or limine motion – was filed by the defense to grant a continuance based on the pre-arrest interview that occurred after Parker Lee Schumaker succumbed to injuries consistent with child abuse . On that day – Feb 11th 2018 – starting at 4AM, Davies underwent a polygraph test and participated in an approximately 9 hour long interview at the Sheriff’s station.
Davies’ defense lawyer Zulu Ali focused on transcripts and testimony from one of the detectives who participated in the interview – clarifying whether Davies was informed of his right to leave the interview at any time. Davies also freely submitted to take a polygraph test before that interview. Judge Christopher Pallone ruled that Davies was sufficiently informed of his right to leave – but did acknowledge the lengthy amount of time for that initial interview.
Because polygraph tests and their results aren’t admissable as evidence in the state of california – the judge reminded the prosecution that discussing the results or even the fact that Davies took a polygraph test would be unavailable to them.
The potential jurors were not present during the pretrial motions and Davies returned to custody after the judge gave his findings on the limine motions.
After a lunch break – A pool of potential jurors filed into the courtroom, to start the long and thorough process of creating a jury of Arthur Davies’ peers – the group that will ultimately decide the fate of the long-accused child-murderer.
