Posted on 04/18/2024 8:56:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The jury selection process for former President Donald Trump's "hush money" trial in New York City has not been going quickly nor smoothly — and things took another turn Thursday morning. After struggling to find jurors in the pool who said they could consider the case fairly and impartially, at least one individual who had been impaneled to the jury has now been excused by the judge.
A female juror, "Juror #2," who works as an oncology nurse and had biographical details — including her occupation and other information from her responses to the juror questionnaire and its 42 multi-part questions — made public told the judge that she had "friends, colleagues, and family push things to my phone questioning my identity as a juror."
"After sleeping on it overnight," Juror #2 told the court she "has concerns about her ability to be fair and impartial."
As a result, Judge Juan Merchan excused Juror #2, meaning there are just now just six impaneled jurors and 12 more must still be settled.
Contrary to claims that Trump and his allies are trying to intimidate jurors, mainstream media outlets hostile to Trump reported details about jurors' identities — apparently enough details to allow at least one juror to have her presence on the panel suspected.
Juror #2 in Trump’s hush money trial has been excused after she told Judge Merchan aspects of her “identity have already been out there in the public, yesterday alone I had friends colleagues and family push things to my phone questioning my identity as a juror”
Down to 6 jurors— Kristen Holmes (@KristenhCNN) April 18, 2024
Adding to the confusion surrounding jury selection, Juror #2 might not be the only one who was added to the jury only to be subsequently excused.
Juror #4, a man who runs an IT business and said while answering the questionnaire that he finds Trump "fascinating," was asked to see Judge Merchan at 9:15 a.m. ET on Thursday after prosecutors said they have reason to believe he may not have answered the selection questions accurately. The D.A.'s office reportedly found records matching the juror's name that called the veracity of his statements into question, but Juror #4 did not show up to see the judge as requested.
Prosecutors said they felt they were "ethically and legally obligated to bring this information to the court." Judge Merchan said he instructed juror number 4 to be here at 9:15 but he still has yet to show up. https://t.co/xI55Ww7pWm— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) April 18, 2024
Of the original 200 individuals called on Monday to begin the jury selection process, a fresh 96 are being run through the gamut in court on Thursday in attempts to seat a full 18-member panel of jurors and alternates.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Modern jury selection is stacking the deck. They ask far too many personal questions. They are preselecting the verdict with ringers.
So any jurors selected who the media suspects MIGHT be sympathetic to Trump are being doxxed. This really is a full-court-press witch hunt trial, eh?
Definitely not a jury of Trump’s peers as some in the media have reported.
Won’t many jurors be found out by their families, friends, or coworkers? Who can sit on a jury for 2 months without having someone notice their absence? How can they be paid enough to offset their earning missed to such an absence?
Toss the guy who didn’t show up.
She was the one who cheered bidens “win” on facebook and denied she was cheering for Biden so good riddance
IN CALIF-—THEY GET $5 a day.
MANY employers DO NOT PAY for such absences.
Won’t a sketch artist or video show who is there, anyway
Anyone Trump’s lawyers approved becomes suspect to the MSM.
“Modern jury selection is stacking the deck. They ask far too many personal questions.”
It’s an old system that made more sense during the horse and buggy days when it was only practical to have jurors from areas close to the trial, so you have a former president with 47% of the vote getting a jury full of people who voted 95% against him...not really fair.
What would work better now, at least for politically-charged cases, is to have the jury pool randomly selected from a community that closely matches Trump’s (or anyone else’s) results in their last election, which I’m sure some communities, even in the NYC area, do just that...or if needed, pull them in from other parts of the country.
Perhaps professional jurors might be an answer.
So, the jury is made up of multi-millionaires in the construction industry?
The guy who didn’t show up, Juror 4, was being challenged by the prosecutor. He should be kept. Unfortunately it appears each side only has 10 peremptory challenges, so the prosecutor is trying to get rid of him for cause (unlimited number can be challenged if there is cause). Prosecutors will be found by this judge to justify for cause everyone they challenge. Judge won’t treat Trump the same. He’ll say the cause isn’t sufficient and make Trump burn up his challenges. Jury will be stacked.
As I’ve said when the roomful of potential jurors could be mistaken for a film production company’s casting call for extras for remakes of Barbershop and Car Wash then it is not going to produce a jury of Trump’s peers.
RE: Where are you going to find 18 Trump peers?
CHANGE OF VENUE.
Another juror was just kicked off listen they are all bad tell me anyone who watches msnbc all day long and npr can be fair
I thought $5/day sounded low, so I found this chart. It says CA now pays $15/day.
https://www.juryduty101.com/juror-pay-by-state
Need to move the trial to Hico, Texas.
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