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Defense lawyers in the Alabama State House vote-buying case say they expect to get a jury seated Thursday.

Jury selection ended at 7 p.m. tonight and will resume at 8 a.m. Thursday morning. Lawyers said they have a few more jurors to interview in the morning in chambers, and then the prosecutors and defense teams will do their jury strikes.

“We’ll get our jury tomorrow. No doubt,” said Jim Parkman, who represents Sen. Harri Anne Smith, I-Slocomb.

VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor; Smith; Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery; two former state senators, a casino spokesman, a former legislative employee and two of Montgomery’s most influential lobbyists — Tom Coker and Bob Geddie — face trial on charges of buying and selling votes for an electronic bingo bill last year.

Jury selection at times slowed to a crawl in the case as the nine defense teams conducted extensive questioning of the potential jurors — both in the courtroom and in the judge’s chambers. The defense lawyers tried to gauge the potential jurors’ attitudes about gambling, politicians, law enforcement and other matters.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson has said he intends to seat a total of 16 jurors — the twelve plus four alternates — to hear the case that is expected to last two or three months.

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