photo by: Journal-World

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach reads from a pocket-sized U.S. Constitution during a class visit at Bishop Seabury Academy on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024.

The Kansas attorney general’s office confirmed on Thursday that Attorney General Kris Kobach had been called for jury service just as a murder trial in Douglas County was getting underway.

Jury selection in the trial of 18-year-old Derrick Del Reed, who is accused of shooting 14-year-old Kamarjay Shaw to death last year, began Monday, and dozens of potential jurors, Kobach among them, were asked to report to the Douglas County Courthouse so that a jury could be selected. Kobach did not appear, which his office attributed to his being away from home.

“Due to the Attorney General being out of town, the Attorney General requested an excusal or a deferment,” said Danedri Herbert, Kobach’s director of communications, in an email to the Journal-World on Thursday.

Herbert said that Kobach’s request for an excusal was denied and that “there was an administrative mix up for the deferment.”

Kobach’s jury service has been deferred to a date later this spring, Herbert said.

Kobach is a Douglas County resident, which made him part of the random pool of county residents eligible to be called for jury duty.