KINGSTON, Jamaica — Mercia Fraser, the mother of Mario Deane has expressed pleasure with the empanelment of new jurors ahead of the trial of three cops charged in connection with the 2014 beating death of her son, now set to begin on Tuesday.

Speaking with the media shortly after the trial date was set in the Westmoreland Circuit Court on Monday, Fraser said she was looking forward to closure after a 10-year-long wait.

“Honestly I look forward to this day with a lot of hesitancy, nervousness and a whole lot of things because I don’t know what’s going on. I was wondering if it’s going to be like Montego Bay but today I am here and I feel a little more relieved after 10 and a half years … a little more relieved that we see more jurors than we really need. It feels good it feels like we going somewhere and we going to move on and I am really looking forward to it. I am looking forward to the closure and that I can finally go on with my life. It’s a good start,” Fraser shared with Observer Online.

Read: Jurors empaneled as trial of cops in Mario Deane case set to start Tuesday

The empanelling of the jury follows several delays, including insufficient jurors. The lack of jurors had resulted in the case being transferred from the St James Circuit Court last year.

Noting these previous challenges, Jade Williams, policy researcher advocacy manager at Jamaicans for Justice said Monday’s turnaround marked a milestone for the decade-long case.

“We were pleased with today’s proceedings. The jury was able to be empanelled. It’s been a long road to getting here, we even had to move the forum before we were able to get to this point where the jury was finally empanelled,” Williams said.

When asked how she felt about the jurors being made available at the new location as opposed to St James, Williams said: “Based on what was said in court, there seems to have been a concerted effort as to the summons of jurors and the jurors were extremely responsive to the summons and I think we saw over 50 persons registered for today’s proceedings so that is a great improvement from what we were seeing in Mobay (Montego Bay).”

(Video: Anthony Lewis)