1 year ago
Sam Bankman-Fried’s ineligible squad and national prosecutors are clashing implicit what tin beryllium asked of imaginable jurors earlier his proceedings begins adjacent month. The defence and prosecution submitted dueling projected questions connected Thursday, with each broadside accusing the different of trying to inappropriately sway the assemblage pool.
SBF Team, Prosecutors Spar Over Voir Dire Questions
In a caller tribunal proposal, Sam Bankman-Fried‘s attorneys asked to query prospective jurors connected topics ranging from their views connected cryptocurrencies to whether immoderate person attraction shortage hyperactivity upset (ADHD) similar their client. Prosecutors changeable backmost successful a 4-page letter, arguing the defense’s suggested questions were “unnecessary and time-consuming” and risked tainting the assemblage excavation against the government’s case.
The ineligible tussle highlights however some sides purpose to extremity the scales successful their favour adjacent earlier Bankman-Fried’s high-profile proceedings gets underway. Jury enactment is slated to commencement connected October 3 for the lawsuit against the FTX founder, who stands accused of perpetrating 1 of the biggest fiscal frauds successful U.S. history.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers asked to question imaginable jurors connected whether they person “completely ignore[d]” pre-trial publicity and if their lawsuit would beryllium astatine a “disadvantage” fixed media sum of his alleged $8 cardinal scheme. Prosecutors called those types of open-ended questions astir publicity “unnecessarily intrusive” and argued jurors simply request to attest they tin beryllium impartial.
The defence besides projected asking if jurors oregon their loved ones person ADHD similar Bankman-Fried, saying it could impact their “perceptions” of his “physical behavior” and “body language” astatine trial. But the authorities countered that Bankman-Fried is medicated for ADHD and claimed helium has a past of “using behavioral eccentricity to his advantage.” U.S. lawyer Damian Williams wrote:
The statement of the imaginable disposable symptoms of ADHD is some vague and expansive and invites the suspect to disrupt the proceedings nether the guise of exhibiting symptoms of ADHD. This is of peculiar interest fixed the defendant’s anterior efforts to usage behavioral eccentricity to his advantage.
Additionally, Bankman-Fried’s squad sought to inquire astir jurors’ views connected “effective altruism” – the doctrine that gaining wealthiness tin maximize one’s quality to assistance humanity. Prosecutors alleged that the question improperly advances a “defense narrative” of Bankman-Fried arsenic a do-gooder. Williams stated:
These questions are a thinly veiled effort to beforehand a defence communicative that the suspect was simply ‘amassing wealth’ successful bid to ‘improve the world.’
In their objection letter, national prosecutors asked that the tribunal trust chiefly connected their “standard, neutral” acceptable of projected questions for voir dire. Those see asking imaginable jurors if they cognize Bankman-Fried oregon worked successful crypto, and if they tin impartially measurement grounds from cooperators against the FTX founder.
Jury enactment is expected to instrumentality up to 2 weeks for Bankman-Fried’s trial. The 30-year-old laminitis faces up to 115 years successful situation if convicted connected fraud, conspiracy, and wealth laundering charges for allegedly looting lawsuit deposits to plug losses astatine his hedge fund, Alameda Research. He has pleaded not guilty.
What bash you deliberation astir the questions Sam Bankman-Fried wants to inquire jurors? Share your thoughts and opinions astir this taxable successful the comments conception below.
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