Word: juror
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While most Americans are celebrating the official start of the summer season, Simpson jurors will be cooling their heels until the trial resumes Tuesday. One juror escaped just in time when Judge Lance Ito dismissed her "for cause" late on Thursday. Francine Floria-Bunten denied rumors that she was caught working on a book about the trial. She was replaced by a 71 year old black woman who said she had never heard of O.J. Simpson before the trial. Eight jurors have been dismissed so far in the trial; only four alternates remain...
...month in a sex-abuse case that had landed them lifelong prison sentences. In arguing for the new trial, Kelly's attorney submitted a 1993 Frontline documentary (one of two pbs series aired on the case), which skeptically examined the children's fantastic claims of abuse and uncovered potential juror misconduct...
...request, which Ito has so far refused to grant, came amid the snowballing tensions prompted by the public statements of dismissed juror Jeanette Harris. She was ousted from the jury on April 5 for not reporting her experience with domestic abuse on the jury form. (Harris and her husband both deny that any domestic abuse ever took place.) She immediately proceeded to give interviews that portrayed the Simpson panel as a sandbox teeming with childish feuds and racist infighting. Among other things, Harris alleged that the guards from the Los Angeles County sheriff's office gave preferential treatment...
Sequestration is always difficult, notes psychologist Valerie Hans, author of Judging the Jury. But the O.J. jurors have been subjected to "one of the most intrusive juror questionnaires I have ever seen. It asked many private questions.'' Watching fellow jurors being investigated and dismissed--in one case the juror's hotel room was searched--has only exacerbated the panel's feeling that they have lost their privacy and, like O.J., are under arrest. Says noted defense attorney Leslie Abramson: "They're being guarded by people who are used to treating everyone like prisoners. They need crisis counseling.'' But, adds Abramson...
What courtroom observers have seen, however, is a group of very fragile people. Juror No. 453, the flight attendant, has been staring dejectedly down at her monitor for weeks, indifferent to the proceedings. When the jurors left the courtroom on Friday after their session with Ito, which was to resume Monday morning--several seemed to have tears in their eyes. In one sense, the fact that 13 jurors (including the white woman and black man alleged to have been involved in a racial incident) joined the protest is heartening evidence that the group is bonding, as most juries...