As the jury pool for Sean Combs' trial is narrowed down, Brian Buckmire does a deep dive into the process. Jury experts say it’s more like jury “de-selection” than selection. Picking a jury is about trying to eliminate potential jurors who might be bad for your side, while leaving the ones who might be favorable. Jury consultant Eric Rudich explains how attorneys try to suss these out. To get access to all the trial updates in this case, follow "Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have a question about the case you'd like Brian Buckmire to answer in an upcoming episode, leave a voicemail at 929-388-1249. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is hosting this podcast episode?
Hi, I'm Brian Buckmeyer, an ABC News legal contributor and host of Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy. Sean Combs is currently on trial, and on my podcast, we're covering everything that goes on in the courtroom, from the prosecution and the defense.
We'll bring you one update every week right here on Fridays, but you can get extra content, including a whole extra weekly episode that's not available anywhere else if you follow Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy, wherever you listen to podcasts. Now, here's our latest episode.
Hey, it's Brad Milkey. This week on The Crime Scene Weekly, we're talking about a mom who gained national attention for faking her own kidnapping. Sherry Papini is back in the spotlight, but now she's changing her story and trying to change her custody arrangement with her kids. Listen to the latest from the case on The Crime Scene Weekly.
This week, jury selection kicked off in the trial of Sean Diddy Combs.
The Sean Combs sex trafficking and racketeering trial in New York is expected to have a jury seated by Friday. The judge currently has 45 prospective jurors in place. Both the prosecution and defense anticipate the jury will be finalized by the weekend.
We're never really sure how long this jury selection process could take, but the judge has been running a very tight ship, and so we seem to be on track for the trial to start next week. We could hear opening statements as early as Monday, May 12th. This week, we saw dozens of prospective jurors cycle in and out of the courtroom.
They included a massage therapist, a freelance writer, an investment analyst, and a high school wrestling coach, a real cross-section of New Yorkers. One by one, they answered questions from the judge. Questions like, have you listened to podcasts about this case? What social media do you use?
Also, questions about whether they think they'll be able to listen to testimony that's sexual in nature, about things the government says are a crime. What's the purpose of these questions? It's to figure out whether the juror can give Sean Combs a fair and impartial trial. Legal minds like me refer to this whole jury selection process as voir dire. It means to speak the truth.
While the courtroom theater has already begun, the government and the defense have been preparing behind the scenes for months. And gaming out jury selection is a crucial step in that preparation. Think about it. The 12 jurors and six alternates who will be seated for this trial are going to hear all of the arguments, listen to all of the witnesses, and see all of the evidence.
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Chapter 2: What updates are available about Sean Combs' trial?
I'm curious how that looks because, again, as a defense attorney, my clients often can't afford a jury consultant. So my prep of a defendant to potentially testify may differ from you. For me, I get in one of my buddies or a friend and I say, grill this client as if you're a prosecutor and see if you can make them sweat, see if you can make them lash out.
And then we gauge how they did on that cross-examination. I might get a few interns, a few first year associates or attorneys as prospective jurors. And that's how I would prep a defendant or a client to potentially take the stand. Am I that far off from you or are you doing something similar, something different? Like how would Sean Collins be prepped to potentially testify?
Very similar. He would undergo a vigorous cross-examination to see how he would respond to very tough questions about evidence and certainly the Cassandra video. I don't think in this case it would be very different. I can't imagine people coming in because there would be the issues with confidentiality. So even though you might have someone sign an NDA, it's not very foolproof.
And I could see someone go into the media and say, hey, I just participated in a mock witness testing with Sean Combs. And that would be the worst thing he could do for his case.
What is some of the wildest thing you maybe have seen during this quote unquote cyber stalking that you're like, red flag, we've got to bring this up?
Well, you certainly see people's strong political views, especially in this environment. So you may have a defendant who is black, and during your investigation, you may see Confederate flags as part of their social media, which we've seen in the past. So you'll often see extreme political views that you may bring up to the court to indicate to the judge that,
Although they may not have indicated during the voir dire process, they may not be a particularly fair and impartial juror in this case.
Yeah. And I'll share one example as well. I've had jury selection where one prospective juror got up on the witness stand, said that he couldn't trust those people. We went into a private chamber with the judge who was Hispanic, two prosecutors who were white. My co-counsel was white and I'm the only black person. And the prospective juror who was not black kept saying, I can't trust those people.
I kept telling everyone we could just move on guys. Like, you know what he's saying? And ultimately the prospective juror turned and looked at me and he says, I don't trust them. And I'm like, I'm not even on trial. So I don't know what we're doing here. But the person was excused. So yeah, we see crazy things like that.
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