DOJ-OGR-00009656.jpg

Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 636 Filed 03/01/22 Page 19 of 22

The Honorable Alison J. Nathan
March 1, 2022
Page 19

“stealth juror” who deliberately lies or evades full disclosure of bias to get on a jury. See Dkt. 614 at 4-5. Jurors who have served in high-profile trials have become instant celebrities, garnering 15-minutes of fame and beyond. They are interviewed by the press; appear on talk shows, documentaries, and podcasts; publish books; and even become employed as trial consultants. The proliferation of social media and 24-hour news channels has made the media interest surrounding jurors more intense and has created abundant opportunity for jurors to step into the limelight and profit from their experience. Jurors have profited financially¹ and gained notoriety from publishing books,² being interviewed,³ and securing employment based on their trial experience.⁴

¹ Alternate Juror No. 2, Jeffrey Welbaum sold his trial notebooks to Vincent F. Amen, The Michael Jackson Trial Juror Notebooks. https://www.vincentfamen.com/juror-notebooks/;. Michael Knox, author of Private Diary of an O.J. Juror, reportedly received $100,000 advance. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-23-mn-5092-story.html).

² See Dkt.614 at n 3; see also Greg Beratlis, Juror No. 1, Tom Marino, Juror No. 2, Mike Belmessieri, Juror No. 4, Dennis Lear, Juror No. 5, Richelle Nice, Juror No. 7, John Guinasso, Juror No. 9, and Julie Zanartu, Juror No. 9, We, the Jury: Deciding the Scott Peterson Case; Jury Foreman Herman Tubic, Inside the Manson Jury: From Deliberation to Death Sentence.

³ CNN broadcast a joint interview of Chauvin jurors days before the trial judge officially released names of jury members. https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2021/10/28/don-lemon-derek-chauvin-trial-jurors-newsroom-vpx.cnn; Jury Duty host Kary Antholis interviewed Durst jurors. Durst Trial Podcast: Juror Interviews. https://shows.acast.com/jury-duty-the-trial-of-robert-durst/episodes; https://podcasts.apple.com/bh/podcast/jury-duty/id1521920134; Interviews of Chauvin Juror No 52 Brandon Mitchell. https://www.facebook.com/ABCNewsLive/videos/watch-juror-brandon-mitchell-speaks-to-abc-news-robin-roberts-in-his-first-telev/129172915896546/; https://abcnews.go.com/US/derek-chauvin-juror-trial-watching-die-daily-basis/story?id=77361744; Interview of Alternate Juror Lisa Christenson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsgDdd4pcbY.

⁴ See, e.g., Stephanie Francis Ward, Former Jurors To Be Consultants-Defense is Hiring Them For Help in Gang-Rape Retrial,30 A.B.A. J. E. REP., July 30, 2004; Michael D. Goldhaber, Thinking Out of the Jury Box: Lawyer-Juror on Hung Panel Joins the Defense for Retrial, NAT'L L.J., July 26, 1999.

2100689.3

DOJ-OGR-00009656