by Charles Schwartz
On Friday, September 9, the trial of Darnell Dorsey resumed with day two of jury selection. Mr. Dorsey is charged with allegedly assaulting and inflicting deadly injury on his girlfriend’s 20-month old child. The trial is being heard before the Honorable Judge Paul K. Richardson.
The day’s proceedings began with the excusal of a potential juror from the jury pool due to hardship. After this one person left the courtroom, the jury pool was brought in and the room was filled with close to 35 individuals. The defendant, Mr. Dorsey, sat next to his defense attorneys, Deputy Public Defenders Joseph Gocke and Martha Sequeira.
Judge Richardson began to introduce the jury pool to the law by explaining the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. The first lawyer to begin questioning the jury candidates was Mr. Gocke, who made it clear that the “credibility of the experts in the case must prove everything beyond a reasonable doubt.” With this line of questioning, Mr. Gocke continued to expand on other lines of questioning that had taken place the day before in jury selection, regarding the effect of media on “unconscious biases” that people have.
According to Mr. Gocke, “Medical research is a constant learning process,” and he made it clear to the jury pool that, over the course of the trial, many confusing and unfamiliar terms would be used by the expert witnesses in the case. To quote Mr. Gocke’s example, that he used in a description to a seemingly confused potential juror, “If I were to suddenly start suffering a pulmonary aspiration then that would mean I’m choking.”
Deputy DA Michelle Serafin began her questioning on behalf of the prosecution after a quick 15-minute recess following the conclusion of Mr. Gocke’s questioning. Ms. Serafin stated and asked questions about how the potential jurors would “make a judgment call and decisions.”
After focusing her questions on one prospective juror in particular, a local social worker, Ms. Serafin jumped on this juror for having hesitation in her answers. Ms. Serafin asked the woman, “What is your hesitation?” She replied, “My religious background.” This potential juror was later excused during the peremptory challenges to jurors, which challenges – limited in number – do not need to be based on cause. Following a couple more questions the room broke for lunch.
After the lunch break, Ms. Serafin began her questioning once more, this time mentioning the fact that in the day prior “there was some conversation about how this was not a jury of (Mr. Dorsey’s) peers,” implying that there aren’t many people of color in the jury pool. The defense objected to Ms. Serafin’s line of questioning and Judge Richardson overruled the defense counsel, allowing Ms. Serafin to continue with her questions.
After Ms. Serafin finished her last questions, the judge started the peremptory strike procedure, during which time the defense excused three potential jurors and the prosecution excused four.
Mr. Gocke began his next line of questioning by again referencing the expert witnesses in the case. This time, when questioning a computer scientist and engineer, he mentioned Dr. Bennet Omalu, a volunteer Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, Davis, in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Worth noting is the fact that Will Smith starred in the movie Concussion and played the role of Dr. Bennet Omalu, who is famous for researching concussive effects on NFL players, and players in other contact sports. Again Mr. Gocke made it perfectly clear that Dr. Bennet Omalu may bring up esoteric terminology that will be foreign to the jury, but it would be their “civic duty to perform to the best of their abilities given the present circumstances.”
Finishing up his questioning for the day, Mr. Gocke asked the potential jurors if they thought “unconscious biases have some impact on the way people act.” Every juror answered yes to this question.
After Mr. Gocke returned to his seat, Ms. Serafin took the podium and began questioning the jury pool for the last time of the day. Immediately, Ms. Serafin began questioning the prospective jurors on a recurring theme that had come up time and time again throughout the day, which was the simple fact that autopsy photos of the child allegedly harmed in the case would be depicted. Ms. Serafin made it clear to the jury that these images would be explicit and graphic. Several potential jurors expressed discomfort with the viewing of the photos and said that it would affect their ability to be fair and impartial. These jurors were later excused.
Ms. Serafin continued her questioning until 4:22pm when Judge Richardson thanked the jury pool members for coming and adjourned the jury selection for the day. The trial resumes next week.
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