“You don’t want liberals on your jury, just have to get rid of them without saying or implying they are liberals”
That was the advice given to me by a famous prosecutor. He has tried thousands of criminal cases. We were sitting down during the beginning of my prosecutor career, and I had a jury trial upcoming.
Prosecutors want law and order types - people involved in their communities, skin in the game - families, military backgrounds, blue or white collar jobs. People that CARE crime is ruining their homes.
Defense wants more “I can save them” types - single women, teachers, librarians, anyone who thinks “they deserve a second chance”, ignoring that there has been a conga line of people trying to give said criminals a second chance.
Trump’s trial is different because HE IS FOR LAW AND ORDER, he says it all the time. Trump supporters ARE blue collar, family, God and country types.
It’s a bizarro voir dire.
If I’m Trump’s team, that’s what I want without saying it - hard working, blue collar Americans with families, people that would think, “what is this all about?”, or “They are using lawfare against him, this is stupid, no way he’s guilty”
One of the questions I ask during voir dire is “do you have any bumper stickers?”
Most people say no, but occasionally you get interesting answers.
I had one guy say he knew almost everyone in county law enforcement, followed by saying he had back the blue, Trump 2024, and Trump bumper stickers.
This man was an idiot, and he was not selected.
Picking jurors is the game within the game. Will be interesting to hear after the fact what the Trump team’s strategy was, should they say it (Probably not given he has multiple potential trials on the horizon).
Weird times.
Only been on one jury - drunk driving case - found the guy guilty. Found out after the trial he had another drunk driving charge the judge was waiting to rule on separately. Serial drunk driver - needed to have his license taken away. Not that doing that will keep some from driving.