Legal News

What Kind of Juror Does Raj Want on His Trial?

By Ashby Jones

The largest white-collar criminal trial since, what, Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay? Joe Nacchio?, opens Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.

At issue: whether Galleon Group co-founder Raj Rajaratnam violated laws against insider-trading. Click here for all previous LB coverage of the case.

Of course, the first thing to happen in a criminal trial is jury selection. And that will be the first order of business Tuesday.

Specifically, writes the WSJ’s Chad Bray in this story, potential jurors in the insider-trading trial will be questioned about whether their feelings about Wall Street executives and the financial crisis in the U.S. will affect their ability to fairly consider the evidence at trial. Click here for the jury questionnaire to be used by U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell.

We checked in recently with Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor and SEC enforcement lawyer-turned-criminal defense lawyer, on the importance of the voir dire, who called jury selection one of the most important parts of a criminal trial. “I truly believe a case can be won or lost in jury selection,” said Frenkel. “It’s a terribly overlooked component of the trial.”

The process is equally important for both sides, but for slightly different reasons. The government wins the majority of criminal cases, but the defense needs only to find one or two individuals to side with them in order to thwart the government’s case.

Prosecutors have vast resources and the instant credibility that comes with serving as agents of the U.S. government. But to win its case, it needs unanimity — a 12-0 vote.

So what type of juror are Rajaratnam and his lawyer, Akin Gump’s John Dowd, looking for? “It’s hard to say something specific like ‘it’s a Caucasian male who’s 35 who works on 7th ave. between 60th and 42nd,’” says Frenkel. “But what they’re trying to do is root out potential jurors who have a chip on their shoulder against corporate executives, or jurors who blame market participants for the recession or who otherwise may have difficulty applying the law.”

Indeed, as Bray notes, one of the questions in the questionnaire reads: “Does the fact that the case involves the financial industry, Wall Street executives, hedge funds, mutual funds and the like, make it difficult for anyone to render a fair verdict?”

Other questions concern the use of wiretaps and feelings toward people from India or South Asia. (Rajaratnam is originally from Sri Lanka.)

In other Raj news, click here for Jenny Strasburg’s story on the judge in the case, Richard Holwell.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 08, 2011 (boomark / email).