7.Individual Voir Dire — Juror No. 14
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MS. CONRAD: Was your Honor planning to ask about his brother who fought in Vietnam and received a Purple Heart? That's -- I didn't see that --
THE COURT: I can.
MS. CONRAD: That's 31 and 32.
THE COURT: A number of these people have had military family members. Generally, it seems incidental. But somebody wounded in combat, I think, might be a little bit different. All right. Why don't we have him come in.
MS. CLARKE: Judge, I don't want to go backwards too far, but if I could just ask you, for future purposes -- and perhaps if that juror is still available -- he was a little grumpy. The last juror that we just had was a little grumpy about his hardship, and it was really an economic problem for him. You know, I'm assuming he would probably be removed for the hardship. But if we could ask how distracting service would be with that hardship if the parties -- if the Court doesn't excuse.
And then the other thing, I think the Court highlighted a lot of the inconsistency on his death penalty. He's pretty consistent, that if you are convicted, if you break society's rules, you're out. And my concern is that he talked in one question about life is only 20 years. This is a guy that tried to give the "I won't be automatically in favor of the death penalty," but I don't think he understood what capital crime was. You just felt like he is an automatic death penalty juror who was trying to give the socially appropriate answer to the Court's question.
THE COURT: Okay.
MS. CONRAD: There was also a comment he made, I think, on 8 -- 91 that wasn't asked about.
THE COURT: We'll go back on audio and we'll bring in -- we'll get to the relevant question in course. There are a few things I'm going to ask him before that, and then we'll cut the audio again.
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COURT CLERK: 14.
THE COURT: Good afternoon.
JUROR: Good afternoon, your Honor.
THE COURT: We asked you when you were last here and filling out the questionnaire to refrain from talking about the case with anybody. Have you been able to abide by that instruction?
JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: And to avoid any media accounts of the case or anything relating to it?
JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: So we have your questionnaire. You have a copy there. I want to ask you some follow-up questions on some of the things that have been in the questionnaire.
It appears that you don't have any particular difficulty with the schedule in the case, is that correct?
JUROR: No, no, your Honor.
THE COURT: With regard to social media, you said in Question 30 you use Facebook about once a day?
JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: What do you do on Facebook?
JUROR: I just communicate with friends and talk to my children, see what they're up to.
THE COURT: Have you talked about this case?
JUROR: No, no, sir.
THE COURT: You had a brother who served in Vietnam and was wounded there?
JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: Received a Purple Heart, I guess?
JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: Does that have any ongoing effect on your view of public affairs or things like that?
JUROR: No. He's quite a bit older, and I was pretty young at that time.
THE COURT: So if you were a juror in this case assessing things that may -- and we talked about it a little later in the questionnaire -- may be seen as some part of war on terror or something like that and military involvement, would your brother's service and his having actually been wounded have any effect on your evaluation and assessment of that kind of evidence or those kinds of issues?
JUROR: I don't think so.
THE COURT: Let's cut the audio.
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THE COURT: Okay. You told us -- one of the questions you answered -- if you want to look -- that's your questionnaire. You can follow through, and it might help sometimes if you see what I'm looking at. I'm looking at Page 15, Question No. 50, that says you have followed this case from the start.
JUROR: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: Let's go back on the audio. I'm sorry if we didn't --
We back on?
MR. DOREAU: It's not back on yet, no.
THE COURT: Question 50. You said you followed this case from the start. Could you tell us how you followed it and perhaps why?
JUROR: I watch Fox News probably almost every night. I listen to a lot of talk radio, the Howie Carr Show; Michael Siegel, who's on now. Almost every day on the way home, I've been following the whole case. I remember seeing it from when it started on the television, when the defendant -- they found him in the boat, his brother being --
THE COURT: Do you continue to listen to Fox News and Howie Carr and so on?
JUROR: Yes, sir, every day.
THE COURT: Are they talking about this case?
JUROR: They have been here and there, yes.
THE COURT: Do you continue to listen when they do that?
JUROR: It's just -- yes. It's part of my regular routine.
THE COURT: Let me look at No. 65. You answered -- this is a question specifically about the defendant and his --
JUROR: 65, your Honor?
THE COURT: Yes. It's on Page 18.
JUROR: 18.
THE COURT: It's about where the defendant was born and so on and so forth.
JUROR: Yeah.
THE COURT: In response to that you said, "I feel the defendant is guilty and have felt this way from the start."
JUROR: That's correct.
THE COURT: And in Question No. 74 and 75, you say a variation of that. "I feel biased and have made up my mind already."
JUROR: That's correct.
THE COURT: So if you were a juror in this case, would you be able or unable to come to a decision on the basis of what's produced in the trial as evidence, or would you be so convinced in advance that whatever the evidence was wouldn't really affect you one way or the other?
JUROR: I don't think I would be able to change my opinion that I've felt, wouldn't be able to be biased.
THE COURT: I think you mean unbiased.
JUROR: I mean, I wouldn't be able to be non-biased, is what I mean, yes. I wouldn't be able to change my feelings, to be honest with you.
THE COURT: Now, is that about the question of whether he is guilty of the offenses or whether he should get the death penalty versus life imprisonment or both?
JUROR: Probably both. I feel that the death penalty -- I feel like it applies to certain cases. This one, I particularly feel like it does apply.
THE COURT: If the defendant is convicted of a crime that carries the possibility of a death penalty, there will be, as I've told you, a penalty phase, and there will be considerations presented probably by both sides, some tending to show the appropriateness of the death penalty, some perhaps tending to show the appropriateness of life imprisonment as an alternative.
After that presentation, would you be able to weigh the evidence that might tend away from the death penalty as well as the evidence that might support it and come to your own new conclusion if that's -- if it would be a new one, or are you so --in your mind, are you so convinced that the death penalty is appropriate here that you would probably not change your mind based on the evidence in a penalty phase?
JUROR: That's how I feel, that I wouldn't be able to change.
THE COURT: The second?
JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. You may step out.
MR. BRUCK: Your Honor, please, I think there might be jurors for whom -- if the party favored by an expressed biased is willing to sort of pull the plug, which I sensed the government was willing to do quite some time ago for that juror, at least a little while ago, it might be efficient if the Court were simply to cast a glance over to one side or another and say --
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Your Honor, I can agree with that.
THE COURT: Maybe I can give you a red flag you can put in your sock or something.
MR. WEINREB: Your Honor, all joking aside, I do think that would speed the process.
THE COURT: I guess what I need is a mirror, but I'll try to glance around, I guess.
MS. CLARKE: (Indicating.)
MR. MELLIN: Your Honor, if we speak up, if we could have a moment or something like that?
THE COURT: I guess I will probably recognize the possibility and maybe that's when I can see if anybody wants to continue.
MS. CLARKE: On that note, are we on?
THE COURT: Are we on -- cut it for a minute.