Juries

Jury Selection and the Michael Avenatti Trial

Here is a brief article on the upcoming Michael Avenatti trial.  I have a few quotes in the article about jury selection. 

Now the 48-year-old celebrity lawyer faces an uncertain future, as he goes on trial on Monday on charges he tried to extort up to $25 million from Nike Inc (NKE.N) and defrauded a basketball coach he represented.

Avenatti says he is innocent and has tried to paint Nike as the real offender, describing the case against him as retribution for his attacks on Trump.

Nike has denied Avenatti’s claims of corruption, and prosecutors want to block him from politicizing the trial.

That is also the hope of U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe, who has excluded evidence he fears will distract jurors...

NYTimes.com: Michael Avenatti faces the trial of his life: his own

My comments on the Harvey Weinstein Trial

Jury selection is currently under way, with the former Hollywood producer accused of five charges, including rape and predatory sexual assault relating to two alleged victims.

But finding impartial juries for such a high-profile case - one that galvanised the #MeToo movement across the world - could be difficult...to continue reading go here.

Selecting Jurors in the Harvey Weinstein Trial

The article below discusses the challenges facing the trial court in Manhattan in selecting 12 neutral jurors for the Harvey Weinstein case which is expected to start on Monday.  The Manhattan DA's office has charged Mr. Weinstein with assaulting two women in 2006 and 2013.  According to the article,

[s]electing impartial jurors to decide the fate of a celebrity whose alleged abuse fueled the #MeToo movement presents unique challenges, experts said, as potential jurors may try to mask their bias to advance a larger cause.

Reuters.com: Motivated by #MeToo? Vetting jurors in Weinstein case will be a challenge, experts say

El Chapo Jurors

Irene Plagianos has written a series of articles for the LA Times on the El Chapo trial including pieces highlighting the jury.  Here is her latest contribution.

LATimes.com: ‘El Chapo’ jurors weigh a mountain of evidence and a complex web of charges

 

Manafort's Change of Venue Motion

Here is Paul Manafort's change of venue motion for his upcoming second trial involving his work as a lobbyist in the Ukraine.  As some are aware, Manafort has already been convicted earlier this month on tax and bank fraud charges.  Manafort is attempting to get his second trial, set to occur in D.C., moved to Roanoke, Virginia.  His attorneys have cited the usual reason for a change of venue i.e., pretrial publicity.  However, after reading the motion, I also noticed that they are using the 2016 election results as grounds to move the trial.  According to the motion,

[i]t is not a stretch to expect that voters who supported Secretary Clinton would be predisposed against Mr. Manafort or that voters who supported President Trump would be less inclined toward the Special Counsel. Notably, however, voters in the Washington, D.C. voted in favor of Secretary Clinton (90.9% Clinton; 4.1% Trump). This split is more balanced in other places such as Roanoke, Virginia,
located in the Western District of Virginia. 

It is highly doubtful that the court will grant Manafort's request. 

Paul Manafort Jurors

CNN has an article discussing the background of some of the jurors who sat in judgment of Paul Manafort.  As some might have heard, Mr. Manafort, one time campaign manager for Donald Trump, was convicted yesterday of 8 criminal counts related to tax and bank fraud.  The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the 10 remaining counts.  

CNN: Who was on Paul Manafort's jury of his peers?

Sentencing and Jurors

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has an article discussing whether jurors should be involved in the sentencing phase of trial.  At present, six states Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia allow jurors to sentence the criminal defendant. 

The article was written in response to the recent felony murder conviction of Claud Tex McIver for the death of his wife.  He received a sentence of life for his crime.  According to the article, several jurors, who convicted McIver, were unaware of the fact that the defendant might be incarcerated for life and had they known that fact they would not have voted to convict him.  This in turn has led some to call for Georgia to return to its roots and allow jurors to sentence the defendant which was the rule up until 1974. But, as the article points out, there are definitely pros and cons to allowing jurors to sentence the defendant.

AJC.com: Georgia juries are left in the dark when it comes to punishment

Appellate Briefs filed in Corrine Brown v. United States

As some may recall, former Congresswoman Corrine Brown was convicted last year of fraud related charges. She has subsequently appealed her case to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.  In her initial brief, available here, she argues that the trial judge erred by removing a juror who informed other jurors that the “Holy Spirit” told him Brown was not guilty. The specific issue before the appellate court, as framed by Brown, is "whether a juror may be disqualified in a criminal case because the juror prays to God and asks for guidance from the Holy Spirit and feels that he has received such guidance."

Earlier this month, the government filed its brief which is available here. This was followed last week by Brown's reply brief available here.  We now await the opinion from the appellate court. Brown is currently serving her five-year sentence at a minimum security prison in Florida.

Picking a Jury when the Governor is the Defendant

The NY Times has an interesting story about jury selection in the upcoming trial of Missouri Governor, Eric Greitens who is accused of taking an explicit photo of a woman without her consent.  The governor and the woman photographed were having an extramarital affair.  If convicted, the governor could face up to four years in prison.  Not surprisingly, the article highlights a number of jurors who know the defendant or were at least familiar with the underlying charges.  In most instances, those who knew the governor had a negative impression of him and thought that he was guilty.  This is probably the main reason why he requested a bench trial. However, in Missouri, defendants do not have a right to a bench trial as opposed to a jury trial which is enshrined in the 5th Amendment. Thus, the trial judge in this case denied the governor's request for a bench trial.

 

NYTimes.com: Picking a Jury When the Whole State Knows the Defendant

 

Change of Venue Motion Based on Vehicular Parade

El Chapo (Joaquin Guzman Loera), who faces federal charges related to leading the Sinaloa cartel, is being held in a high-security jail in Lower Manhattan.  However, he will be tried in Brooklyn.  Therefore, whenever he has to physically appear in court he travels in a motorcade that includes armored cars, police cruisers, and an ambulance.  As one might imagine, this makes for quite the spectacle in New York City especially when the emergency vehicles activate their lights and sirens.

All of this activity has led El Chapo's attorney to move for a change of venue motion to relocate the trial either to Manhattan or Philadelphia in order to decrease the likelihood that potential jurors will be exposed to all of the security measures currently used.  In both locations, the courthouse is either connected to the detention facility or close to a local jail. It should be noted that El Chapo has twice escaped from prison while in Mexico.