Libby Jury Selection Includes Some Surprises
The judge in the Lewis "Scooter" Libby trial is surprising many observers with the potential jurors he has so far refused to excuse from serving. Among them are journalists and others who have had daily contact with people involved in the case.
Related NPR Stories
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
Jury selection is expected to be completed today in the trial of Lewis Libby, known to his friends and now by many others as Scooter. The vice president's former chief of staff is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation.
NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports.
NINA TOTENBERG: It's taken longer than expected to select a jury. At the end of last week, the pool of jurors who had not been excused for cause had been narrowed to 30, with six more needed before peremptory strikes take place. The selection process has been, well, weirder than usual. First of all, the group of 60 potential jurors looks to be about 80 percent white, in a city that is 62 percent non-white, and where juries typically are overwhelmingly minority.
Nobody at the courthouse seems to know why the anomaly, though nobody disputes it either. In a city with a relatively small jury pool, it also seems that almost every juror called has some connection, either to one of the witnesses, lawyers, or players. What's more, in this case rife with journalistic stars as witnesses, there seem to be an uncommon number of journalists in the jury pool. One former journalist not only worked for two years for Bob Woodward at the Washington Post, and Woodward is expected to be a key defense witness; the juror also lives across the street from NBC's Tim Russert, expected to be a key prosecution witness.
Then there was the Washington Post reporter who told the judge she had concerns about being a juror because of her job. Well, you're an American, aren't you? You could be fair, the judge said. Yes, she acknowledged, but I'm a gossip. That's what we do. In the end, she was excused, not because she's a reporter or a gossip, but because she acknowledged she didn't trust Vice President Cheney.
The defense is trying to get anyone off the jury who has questions about Cheney, President Bush, or their conduct of the Iraq war. And by and large, if anyone is up front about any opposition, they are gone pretty quickly. Last Thursday, it took all day to get six jurors because so many in the pool expressed outright hostility about the president and his Iraq policy. Others were excused for related reasons.
An inspector general with the Department of Homeland Security conceded she views politicians with more skepticism, because they are quote, "like advertisers, always trying to shape consumer opinion." Even though she said she would treat them equally when they're under oath, she was gone. Not so, the preppy-looking attorney whose lawyer-fiancée represents journalist Bob Woodward in this very case. Would it be a problem if he saw his fiancée in the court when Woodward testifies?
No, the juror dutifully replied. He stayed in the pool. In some ways, this jury selection seems to be a particularly stark sociological study of the two Washingtons. Many of the African-American jurors, including those with college degrees and good jobs, have had unhappy brushes with the criminal justice system. One was excused after he expressed skepticism about any law enforcement official. He'd been arrested four times, he said, all mistakenly, one even on his 16th birthday.
Another juror, a graphics designer with a security clearance, well spoken, dressed in a conservative suit, volunteered that he's an ex-offender. Ten years ago, he told the judge, he'd done a year's time in a halfway house. I'm afraid we'll have to excuse you, the judge said. A sad rueful smile crossed the man's face. That's all right, he said. They never pick me for juries anyway. And then there was the retired postal worker, a picture-perfect grandmother. Her nephew was shot and killed. Her son pled guilty to a drug charge. Did he do time, the judge asked? You ought to know, your honor. You sentenced him. Did she harbor any anger over that? Oh no, she replied. It was his fault.
The woman said she gets her news from the Washington Post and by watching TV. And does she ever watch Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" on Sundays? The juror looked slightly offended. No, she said. I'm in church on Sundays.
Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
Copyright © 2007 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Plenty of Questions for the Libby Jury Panel
Picking the Libby Jurors
A look at some of the questions being posed to potential jurors:
Potential jurors in the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby are being asked extensive questions about their political leanings.
Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, is accused of lying to a grand jury and federal investigators about conversations he had with reporters concerning an undercover CIA agent's identity. He's charged with five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice.
The questions that potential jurors are being asked this week provide clues about the course the trial will take. For example, some of the questions focus on politics:
"Do any of you have feelings or opinions about the Bush Administration or any of its policies or actions, whether positive or negative, that might affect your ability to give a former member of the Bush Administration a fair trial?"
"Do you have any feelings or opinions about Vice President Cheney, whether positive or negative, that might affect your ability to be fair in this case or that might affect your ability to fairly judge Vice President Cheney's believability?"
Jurors' political leanings are important because parts of the trial will focus on White House operations in the months leading up to the Iraq war. That's the time period when Libby allegedly talked with reporters about Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent whose husband publicly criticized the Bush administration's justification for war. Libby's defense team wants to find jurors who may be sympathetic to the Bush administration, while prosecutors are looking for jurors who may be more critical of the White House.
Potential jurors are also being asked questions that focus on their thoughts regarding memory:
"Is there anyone who believes that everyone's memory is like a tape recorder and therefore all individuals are able to remember exactly what they said and were told in the past?"
"Is there anyone who believes that it is absolutely impossible for a person to believe very strongly that he or she has certain memories about something, even though it is determined that those memories are inaccurate?"
Faulty memory is a key part of Libby's defense strategy. His lawyers contend that Libby did not intentionally obstruct the investigation into the CIA leak. Instead, his lawyers say he was so preoccupied with his many responsibilities at the White House that he simply forgot the correct sequence of events.
An addendum to the questionnaire lists potential witnesses and names that may be mentioned during the trial. The list reads like a Who's Who of Washington politics and journalism. Some of the people, such as Cheney and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, are expected to testify at the trial. Others, such as former CIA Director George Tenet and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, likely will not play a personal role in the proceedings.
Jury selection is expected to last through the end of the week. Opening statements are scheduled for Monday, Jan. 22.