Jury selection in the Shkreli trail for eight counts of securities and wire fraud has not been an easy task. Over 200 potential jurors have been excused. Here are comments made by potential jurors during selection. Brafman is Shkreli’s attorney…
The Court: The purpose of jury selection is to ensure fairness and impartiality in this case. If you think that you could not be fair and impartial, it is your duty to tell me. All right. Juror Number 1.
Juror no. 1: I’m aware of the defendant and I hate him.
Benjamin Brafman: I’m sorry.
Juror no. 1: I think he’s a greedy little man….
Juror no. 47: He’s the most hated man in America. In my opinion, he equates with Bernie Madoff with the drugs for pregnant women going from $15 to $750. My parents are in their eighties. They’re struggling to pay for their medication. My mother was telling me yesterday how my father’s cancer drug is $9,000 a month.
The Court: The case is going to come before you on evidence that you must consider fairly and with an open mind.
Juror no. 47: I would find that difficult….
Juror no. 52: When I walked in here today I looked at him, and in my head, that’s a snake — not knowing who he was. I just walked in and looked right at him and that’s a snake.
Brafman: So much for the presumption of innocence.
The Court: We will excuse Juror Number 52. Juror Number 67?…
Juror no. 77: From everything I’ve seen on the news, everything I’ve read, I believe the defendant is the face of corporate greed in America.
Brafman: We would object.
Juror no. 77: You’d have to convince me he was innocent rather than guilty…
Juror no. 10: The only thing I’d be impartial about is what prison this guy goes to…
juror no. 59: And he disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan.
(h/t John Cole at Balloon Juice)
Sources have it that Shkreli is, in fact, the illegitimate son of one Donald J. Trump.
That might explain Shkreli’s bizarre behavior and general attitude about life.
These prospective jurors mostly did not know who this privileged little shrew was. Yet they read him like an open book. Isn’t that interesting?