Juries are supposed to be sequestered, but not all jury sequesters are done the same way. The Seminole County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Department faces allegations that George Zimmerman’s jury was allowed unfettered access to loved ones, media and the public. The department’s own press release confirms it. That raises questions about how impartial the jury remained. the release said:
Jurors watched television and movies, exercised at the hotel fitness center, and spent weekends being visited by family and friends.
However, the department quickly pointed out that jurors were carefully scrutinized:
All television, internet use, reading materials, mail, and phone calls were screened, monitored and logged by deputies to ensure jurors were not exposed to any trial information, or content related to the criminal justice system.
The visiting loved ones, of course, included Juror B37’s husband. Juror B37 quickly made herself available to the media, in order to promote planned (and now dead) book. According to breakingbrown.com, she said the book would be written from her and her husband’s point of view.
That might leave people wondering where Juror B37’s husband gained his perspective–and how much monitoring or supervision took place. The department claims visitors were required to sign gag orders and allegedly told not to discuss the case with jurors.
If Juror B37’s? book deal, which included her husband’s perspective, was in the works, it’s not a stretch to assume they had lengthy talks.
The 22-day sequestration included bowling, museum, shopping trips, manicures, pedicures and watching the Fourth of July fireworks. Jurors dined twice at a Outback Steakhouse in Sanford. Their culinary adventures also included lunching at a Winter Springs restaurant twice. Taxpayers paid a total of about $350,000, according to preliminary estimates.
That includes overtime and equipment. Juror expenses came to $33,000. The hotel costs were $1,000 a day; meals cost $375 a day; and the trips came to $350. Sequestering 12 jurors and several alternates for the 8-week Casey Anthony trial in 2011 came with the same price tag, according to CBS News.
Interestingly, the Zimmerman trial had half the number of jurors and no alternates. And, again, it only lasted 22 days.
Department spokesman Heather Smith not only confirmed jurors’ two-hour visits, but — according to Addicting Info — elaborated that jurors actually got more than two hours of visiting time. Although Smith doesn’t say exactly how much more, it’s clear that the jurors had ample opportunities to be influenced from outside of the courtroom.
During an exclusive interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, Juror B37 claimed that she really “had no idea how big this case had become,” that she believes George Zimmerman’s “heart was in the right place,” and felt that Zimmerman was “justified in shooting Trayvon Martin.” Strangely enough, Cooper reported that the supposedly objective juror claimed “”They never talked about race, not once, she says. She didn’t consider it, she doesn’t think any of the other jurors considered it.”
Fortunately, a Change.Org campaign led by Genie Lauren quickly scuttled Juror B37’s pending book deal.
Here’s the video with Cooper’s and Juror B37’s interview:
Photo from screen captured from CNN video.
edited/published: eap
