In Juries, Lawyers Now Favor the Uninformed
A. Zito, a longtime white-collar defense lawyer who will soon become a professor at Marist College, said, “I would want financial people on the jury,
because the underlying transactions are very complicated.”
One problem with Mr. Shkreli is how much people seem to dislike him, Mr. Zito said, and that could sway jurors who know little about finance.
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORDJULY 19, 2017
By the second morning of jury selection in Martin Shkreli’s fraud trial in Brooklyn, more than 130 prospective jurors had been tossed out: people with vacation or work conflicts, those who had heard about the case
and even several who worked in pharmaceuticals or finance, fields in which Mr. Shkreli has worked.
Still, one seated juror said during the jury selection
that the case was “something about embezzling” or “maybe something about safety.” Another, who said she only knew there was “some kind of explosion or something,” explained she was “really not in the mood to listen to the news.” She was also chosen.
One juror at a Manhattan federal trial this year was dismissed by prosecutors who explained they were concerned about his spending his leisure time being “a First
Amendment advocate.” “Everyone in this courtroom is a First Amendment advocate, including the United States, I would hope,” a defense lawyer shot back.
In a recent insider trading case in San Francisco, lawyers struck several jurors with financial experience,
including one who’d worked in venture capital and said, “You kind of see how the sausage is made.”
It wasn’t always a plus to know little.
