9.Individual Voir Dire — Juror 57
71 lines(Discussion at sidebar and out of the hearing of the public:)
THE COURT: I've only read -- tried to read this report quickly. It -- I'm not sure it's -- I'm not sure what it gives us. It seems consistent rather than inconsistent with the answers she gave to Question 40 and carried over. It's approached from a different point of view, but the time frame and the charges seem to be like, so I'm not sure this is a case of failure to report.
Does anybody have a different view? I think they seem to be consistent.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: That's the government's position, your Honor.
MS. CLARKE: Yes, we agree.
THE COURT: All right. We won't bring it up, then. Apart from our getting the report, if someone wants to ask about that question, but I don't see any reason to wave the report around.
MS. CLARKE: We agree.
THE COURT: Okay.
COURT CLERK: Okay.
THE COURT: Yes, they can come back on.
COURT CLERK: Phil, turn it back on.
MR. DOREAU: Back online.
(In open court:)
COURT CLERK: Number 57.
THE COURT: Good afternoon.
JUROR: Good afternoon. How are you?
THE COURT: Good, thank you.
We've placed the questionnaire that you filled out before in front of you. We may refer to it as I follow up on some of the questions that you gave.
JUROR: Okay.
THE COURT: Tell us just a little bit about your employment and what you do.
JUROR: I work at Pentucket Bank. It's a small community bank. And I work as a customer-service --
THE COURT: In Middlesex County, generally?
JUROR: Yes. As a customer-service representative.
THE COURT: And you've done that for a while?
JUROR: I've done that for seven years.
THE COURT: Tell us the extent to which you may use various social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, anything like that.
JUROR: I have an account with Facebook. I normally go in it once or twice a week. Sometimes months go by without using it. It all depends.
THE COURT: And are you posting as well as reading other -- going down people's posts?
JUROR: Mostly reading. I have family outside of the United States that I keep in touch with.
THE COURT: And that's one of the ways you stay in touch?
JUROR: Exactly.
THE COURT: Any posting about this case or anything related to it?
JUROR: Not at all. Not at all.
THE COURT: Let me ask you, in the questionnaire if you'd turn to page 20, and I want you to look at Question 77 near the top where we ask some questions about whether you had formed some opinions about this case, particularly whether the defendant was guilty or not, and whether he should receive the death penalty if he was guilty. And you indicated to -- in the first part of the question that you thought he was guilty, but it looks like you had changed your answer from "unsure." So I just wanted to see what your thinking was on that.
JUROR: Yes. My first response was "unsure." I'm not that familiar to 100 percent of the case. Once I continued going -- I went back to reread the question and I said, "Do you know what? I've heard some things through the media." And I said, "Well, my mind is more towards the answer that you do see there, but I'm always willing to hear and see what the case is all about."
And as you know by reading this, you find out I'm a Christian woman, so I'm not a person who likes to judge anyone. I like to hear and go from there.
THE COURT: Just on that last point, some people believe firmly that they should not sit in judgment of other people --
JUROR: Right.
THE COURT: -- and therefore can't be a juror in any case -- a criminal case, that is, I guess -- no matter what the charges are, even if they're not capital charges. Are you of that belief or were you speaking a little more generally about not judging people in --
JUROR: In general.
THE COURT: To convey that you're patient about assessing a matter before you jump to a conclusion?
JUROR: Yes. Exactly. In general.
THE COURT: All right. That's what I thought, but I wanted to be sure.
Now, you do understand that in any criminal case, again, the defendant's presumed to be innocent at the outset and is determined to be guilty only if the government proves that he's guilty at the trial on the evidence and proves it beyond a reasonable doubt.
JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: And you are -- if you were a juror in this case, could you conscientiously apply those principles?
JUROR: Absolutely.
THE COURT: Okay. So let's turn to the question of the penalty. If you'd turn to page 23, and in answer to Question 88 you said that you do not agree with the death penalty and only God can have the right to end a life.
JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: And then right below that in the next question we asked how -- you to gauge how strong your opposition to the death penalty was, and you circled 1, indicating strongly, right?
JUROR: Yes, that's correct.
THE COURT: Turn to the next page, and we asked you to -- which of the following describes your feelings. And you, I guess, thought that you should indicate that there were two possible expressions of your views on this: One was that you're opposed to the death penalty and would never impose it no matter what the facts; and, secondly, that you're opposed to the death penalty and would have a difficult time voting to impose it even if the facts supported it.
JUROR: Exactly.
THE COURT: First of all, did you intend to highlight both of those?
JUROR: I could have misunderstood it. What I did mean by it is I'm completely opposed to it and there is -- by having a difficult time, I thought it was more towards my person and how I feel, but definitely I do not support it.
THE COURT: Is your opposition such that you could not -- you feel you could not vote to impose the death penalty in any circumstance?
JUROR: Exactly.
THE COURT: Is it that strong?
JUROR: That strong.
THE COURT: You can't think anything about a case that could be so horrendous or shocking that would lead you to change your mind on that?
JUROR: No, I wouldn't change my mind on that.
THE COURT: Anything else?
MR. WEINREB: No.
THE COURT: No? Thank you.
JUROR: Thank you.
THE COURT: You may step out.
(The juror is excused.)
JAMES MCALEAR: Right this way.
THE COURT: We'll take a recess and then we'll come back in a sidebar and there will be further discussion.
MR. WEINREB: What time?
THE COURT: What do you want? Half an hour?
MS. CLARKE: Can you give us a half-hour?
THE COURT: Half-hour?
(There is a recess in the proceedings at 3:12 p.m.)
(The Court entered the room at 3:54 p.m.)