Comments on: Scruggs jury will be anonymous

By: magnolia

magnolia — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:41:41 +0000

Sailor//The District I live in will be the jury pool. Dicky Scruggs’ reputation around here is known by very few people, and many of these people have had to go and sit on these Juries. A relative of mine was called to sit on a case where A Treasure Agent had had his Goverment Payroll Check stolen…To made a long story short, the agent had been caught with his pants off somewhere he should not have been, and the cash he give her she felt was not quite enought for the services she had rendered so she had taken his check. In Mississippi we have a very active Court System , and the last time I was called into the Circuit Court as a prospective jury there was atleast 200 of us, I had a brother and a sister-in-law in the pool and none of us looked up because it was a death penalty case. My sister-in-law was selected as Jury Foreman and the Lady is sitting on Mississippi Death Row. To this day we have never discussed this because I stood up and said She was in my Sunday School Class, and was to close to the situation. Mississippi is rural but there is a class of people that are not related to each other or have never met the population as a whole, but are very well educated and make the correct decisions when called upon to do it.

By: confounded

confounded — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:15:42 +0000

no man the jury will be told this is pretty routine for cases involving corruption but they are to presume innocence. to them (most of whom will not have served before) it will be routine for this kind of case.

By: Sailor

Sailor — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:47:22 +0000

Please see my questions at 20 and 24. I just don’t see how this can work…

By: observer

observer — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:34:28 +0000

I have no doubt, that this has already been a heavily discussed issue in the U.S. Attorney’s office and FBI office, for some time (the fact that they filed the motion at all demonstrates that). This isn’t their first rodeo.

By: lotus

lotus — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:26:46 +0000

Well, if they weren’t before (ha!), we just put the Court and all officers thereof on notice of this issue, didn’t we?

By: MSlawyer

MSlawyer — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:02:44 +0000

I imagine that courtroom will be full of “observers” from all over north Mississippi, observer.

By: observer

observer — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:57:41 +0000

ItsAboutTime and NMC both have good points. It’s one thing to be “anonymous” in New York, and a whole different thing to be anonymous in north Mississippi. And, once a friend of the Scruggs’ team recognizes one of them, and calls it in, it would not be surprising to see the same thing happen, and for a juror to look out and see his or her grandmother hugging Dickie Scruggs.

By: NMC

NMC — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:35:03 +0000

The jury will be visible. They will be tightly sequestered, though.

I’m not making a comparison, just telling a story. When “the dapper don” was being tried, he had an anonymous jury. Someone connected was able to tail a juror out of the courthouse (I don’t remember how it fit with sequestration) and figure out who their family was and had a family member come and sit with the defense team during the trial. When the feds nailed them on this, it was part of the beginning of finally convicting that guy.

By: ItsAboutTime

ItsAboutTime — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:21:17 +0000

Anybody know whether the parties and/or the gallery will be able to see the faces of the jurors?
If so, they won’t be anonymous for long.

By: NMC

NMC — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:12:23 +0000

NAAS or anyone else if you’re around and want some amusement read the new post I just did about Judge Mills and the State Farm depositions