Sean 'Diddy' Combs' lawyers demand search for unbiased jurors amid legal battle

Diario As

28/4/2025

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00:00When a celebrity is involved in a trial,

00:27the celebrity status becomes very important.

00:31Jurors are starstruck, they have favorites, they see a celebrity.

00:35It's very different than just seeing a regular person.

00:37And so in most cases where the allegations aren't that egregious

00:43or it's kind of a one-time situation,

00:45the jurors become very sympathetic towards a celebrity.

00:49And it can have an impact.

00:51Here, however, I think it's much different

00:53because I think the case has become the celebrity.

00:56It's not really P. Diddy anymore.

00:58It's the salacious allegations, the egregious conduct,

01:02which have not completely but largely tainted his celebrity status.

01:07So now it's about, hey, can we get jurors that can maybe put aside

01:11what they've read or their personal animus and focus on the facts.

01:15As a defense side, you're really wanting to get jurors

01:17that have not heard anything about this case

01:20or know very, very little about it.

01:22So they come in with a truly blank slate

01:24and that hasn't had any type of bias,

01:26even unconscious bias from what they've heard of the media.

01:28You know, jury selection is not really about picking the right jury.

01:37It's about getting off jurors that are not good for the case.

01:41It's about eliminating bad jurors.

01:57So you want to do that through any bias,

02:01through any personal animus that they have,

02:05people that are not going to change their mind.

02:11They don't need to play because if they're trying to get rid of them,

02:15they don't, they don't want to be able to ещё.

02:20They don't need to be able to do them.

02:23They don't need to learn to be able to get rid of them,

02:26they don't have to be able to get rid of them.

02:28If they don't think so, I'd like to agree with that.

02:29Like, that's very lucky.

02:32What?

02:33Like, that's not a coincidence.

02:34Okay.

02:36That's just how they're just saying.

02:38Like, that's not a coincidence.

02:40The government's approach to the questionnaire is to try to rehabilitate jurors, to get them

03:08to say that they can set aside anything they've heard, they can be fair and impartial in

03:12trying to preserve those jurors, whereas the defendant's questionnaire is really focused

03:16on eliciting that bias, identifying any potential pre-existing opinions and beliefs that people

03:22hold and how that might affect their view of the evidence with the goal of getting those

03:27jurors excused for cause or bias so that they can really end up with a panel that has not

03:34heard much about the case at all.

03:38The biggest fear is what we call a stealth juror.

03:51It's a juror who puts very little on their questionnaire, who doesn't seem to have any issues, and they're

03:56lying in wait to assert their agenda in the deliberation room.

03:59And so you may have noticed they ask about the juror's social media involvement and ask

04:04about what accounts they have, I can guarantee you that they are attempting to find these

04:09accounts of these jurors and prospective jurors and looking up their social media accounts

04:14to see, is the persona that they've put on their questionnaire matching the persona that

04:19they've depicted of their online selves, or are there some inconsistencies there?

04:23And whenever we see inconsistencies between someone's online presence and their juror questionnaire,

04:28that is a red flag, to exercise a peremptory strike on someone like that.

04:31This case involves a lot of sensitive issues, and on the background questionnaire involves

04:59a lot of sensitive issues. So if you want jurors to be candid and honest, the court needs to give

05:04them some protection of anonymity to get them to open up and be candid in that questionnaire,

05:10which is really the goal of these questionnaires. So I think that's one major reason.

05:13The other is to protect jurors from any potential harassment from people right now with online

05:19and social media. It is very easy for strangers to get in touch with people.

05:23So we're wanting to protect those jurors' confidentiality, wanting to also protect them

05:27from being unduly influenced by outside sources. Could you imagine if the names of the jurors

05:32are released, and now those jurors are getting bombarded with messages on social media,

05:36on email, the people at work are pinging them, hey, I heard you're on the Sean Combs trial.

05:42So I think there's several to protect the jurors' confidentiality, but also to protect the

05:46integrity of the trial and to encourage the jurors to be candid in their questionnaires.

05:53So it's really about metting out the personal bias, getting to those jurors that, even though

06:05they've heard about this case, because everybody has, you know, can you really put it aside

06:09and even change your mind about something, you know, based on the evidence?

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