4.Individual Voir Dire — Hardship, Impartiality, and Death-Penalty Views (Part 1)
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COURT CLERK: Juror No. 111.
THE COURT: Do we have any Question 40 issues in this panel? I just would like a head's up if we do.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: I think there's one on 113, your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. So they will be soon. Okay.
MR. MELLIN: Your Honor, Juror 134 indicated that she had something to say privately about No. 40.
THE COURT: Yeah. I saw that.
COURT CLERK: Juror 111.
COURT CLERK: Have a seat here if you would, please.
THE COURT: Good morning.
JUROR: Good morning.
THE COURT: You recall -- I referred to it earlier today, but you recall that when you were here before I asked you to avoid any discussion of the case or the process and avoid, as much as you could anyway, any exposure to media reports about it. Have you been able to do that?
JUROR: I tried.
THE COURT: Have you succeeded?
JUROR: I think so.
THE COURT: Tell us what you do.
JUROR: I'm an architectural draftsman. I just recently started working at a small architecture firm. I finished college this past May.
THE COURT: You're concerned about the impact of your being called to serve for an extended period on that. Can you tell us how that would affect you?
JUROR: Not only is it a financial loss for me, you know, in the order of 12 to $15,000, but it's also -- this money is going towards graduate school, which I hope to attend in a year or two. And I would like to save as much money as possible before attending graduate school. And the work that I do is directly correlated towards my field of study, and having this work experience is very important for me to be successful as an architect and in graduate school.
THE COURT: Have you discussed this with your employer?
JUROR: They've agreed to pay me for three days.
THE COURT: Okay. Thank you.
MR. BRUCK: It will probably take longer than that.
THE COURT: So hold off for a minute. Do you have something on 113?
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Yes, your Honor.
THE COURT: Is this -- why don't we just -- this may be a sidebar.
Okay. We'll get to it in due course.
COURT CLERK: 113.
COURT CLERK: Juror 113.
COURT CLERK: Sir, right over here, please. Have a seat.
THE COURT: Good morning.
JUROR: Morning.
THE COURT: I referred to it earlier today, but do you remember, when you filled out the questionnaire, we asked you, as you left, to avoid any discussion of the case or the process and try to limit any exposure to the media accounts and so on? Have you been able to do that?
JUROR: I -- yes.
THE COURT: So that is the questionnaire you filled out. We're going to follow up on some of the questions just to get a little more information. I want to start with what you do for employment.
JUROR: I am an employee benefits broker.
THE COURT: Broker?
JUROR: Yup, a consultant.
THE COURT: Self-employed or --
JUROR: No. I work for a firm here in Boston.
THE COURT: How big is the firm?
JUROR: It's about 210 people.
THE COURT: How many of those are broker consultants?
JUROR: Probably 50 of us, and the rest is support.
THE COURT: With respect to social media, you post sometimes on business-related blogs and so on?
JUROR: That's about it.
THE COURT: Do you do any --
JUROR: LinkedIn, and I don't do Facebook or I'm not on Twitter or --
THE COURT: Your daughter is employed by the Massachusetts Department of Correction. What's her capacity there?
JUROR: She works in the administrative office in Milford.
THE COURT: Basic administrative kinds of things?
JUROR: It is. She -- she does -- I asked her this the other day because I knew you might ask me this. She does statistical compliance checks, whatever that means. I really wasn't sure what she does.
THE COURT: At Pages 17 and 18, we asked some general questions about attitudes towards issues and international affairs and so on such as the War on Terror and perhaps attitudes towards Islam and Muslims and immigration and things like that. Do you recall those?
JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: You filled them out.
Since you gave us those answers, there have been some news reports about incidents in France, for example, of terrorism attacks and so on and so forth. Have you followed those news reports about the -- about what's going on over there?
JUROR: As much as any normal person would as far as peripherally.
THE COURT: Would those events cause you to change any of the answers you've given previously?
JUROR: No.
THE COURT: Can we have a quick sidebar, which means we'll excuse the press?
MR. DOREAU: Audio is off; video is off.
(SIDEBAR CONFERENCE AS FOLLOWS:
[REDACTED]
MR. DOREAU: Video and audio on.
THE COURT: Wait for the reporters to come back into the room.