Unfortunately, it has become rather standard procedure to use anonymous juries in terrorism trials. Interestingly, the rational provided by the trial judge in the Hutaree militia trial for using an anonymous jury did not follow the usual script. Here, the trial judge said that juror privacy, not juror safety, was the reason for anonymous jurors.
Detroit Free Press: Secrecy ordered for jurors in Hutaree militia trial
The jurors who hear the case will remain anonymous, following an order by U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts, who expressed concerns about jurors' privacy rights.
"These jurors will be thrust into the eye of a storm simply because they have honored our request to perform this high civic duty," Roberts wrote in her order Friday. "The court wants to be clear that this decision ... is not based at all on the belief that defendants present a danger to potential jurors."
Although anonymous juries first started in the late 1970s to ensure juror safety, they are used increasingly to safeguard juror privacy.
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