Judge Paul G. Byron interviewed one juror who was a motion graphics artist that works for the local news stations. He created a 3D model of Pulse and extensive motion graphics for the TV News coverage following the Pulse Nightclub massacre. This juror was excused for cause. In our media overflow courtroom, the reporters watched closely as the prospective juror left courtroom 4B. He was recognized as having worked for Channel 9 News. The great thing about sketching the trial from the media overflow courtroom is that I get to hear the opinions from News station legal analysts. In the end, however, the only opinions that matter are the opinions of the 12 jurors.
After a solid week of interviewing jurors and narrowing down the jury pool to 56 prospective jurors, the final process of picking the final individual was rather fast, taking less that 40 minutes. This process was referred to as Striking the Jury. The defense lawyers could strike 2 jurors off the list for every 1 juror the prosecutors struck form the list. Each lawyer used a different color marker to strike names from the list. No one in the media will ever know the names of anyone on the jury. Come Wednesday when the case begins, we will finally learn how many jurors are female and how many are male. I would think that the defense would want female jurors since they might sympathize with any reports that Omar Mateen mistreated Noor Salman, his wife. Up until today, I have avoided mentioning the gunman’s name in any of my posts about the horrific Pulse Nightclub mass shooting. With the case in full swing, I think I will have to mention his name often.