Posted on Jun 22, 2017
judge-bergdahl-lawyers-cant-ask-if-jurors-voted-for-trump
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Are you kidding me? Now we want to pick jurors based upon who they voted for? That's some real rabbit-hole shennanigans, there.
judge-bergdahl-lawyers-cant-ask-if-jurors-voted-for-trump
Posted from armytimes.com
UCMJ
Court Martial
Justice
Bergdahl
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 4
I think it has to do with Trump's comments during the campaign. Presumably if you voted for Trump you agreed with his position, one of which was that Bergdahl was a traitor. Therefore you would already have your mind made up that he was a traitor before the trial started.
reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1650XI
reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1650XI
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SN Greg Wright
Oh I get why it's beneficial to the defense. But to make the assumption that just because I voted for Trump, I would, therefore, tow his line, rather than my own, seems...misguided. This is a poor example of a case, though, because my mind IS made up....but Trump had nothing to do with that.
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The whole point of jury selection is to test bias and to seat a fair panel. Certainly someone's support for the Commander in Chief, who previously made disparaging marks about Bergdahl, could potentially be a bias (or be perceived to be one). I don't think anything is crazy about wanting to explore that.
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SN Greg Wright
And the judge agreed with you. They can ask about bias. They can't ask who they voted for.
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