DOJ-OGR-00005252.jpg
Extracted Text (OCR)
Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 355 _ Filed 10/18/21 Page3of5
Page 3
defendant claims that because this case has received significant pretrial publicity and the charges
involve a “sensitive subject matter,” the Court “should grant a limited period of attorney-conducted
voir dire after the Court’s general voir dire,” but she does not identify what information she
believes that her attorneys would be more capable of discovering than the Court. (Dkt. No. 342 at
1, 10). Even if counsel identify specific or additional issues the defendant believes her attorneys
should be able to explore in light of, as the defendant claims, the attorneys’ “more in-depth
knowledge of the case” (id. at 11), counsel are free to propose additional questions that the Court
may ask, and the Court is in the best position to consider whether such inquiry is appropriate and,
if so, how to pose such questions in a way that is fair to the interests of all parties and the potential
jurors. Even if counsel attempt to ask their additional questions in an even-handed way, counsel
may easily and inadvertently step over the line and significantly prejudice the other side. See
Saipov, 2020 WL 958527, at *1 (holding that court-conducted voir dire “assures that the parties
do not stray into impermissible areas that could potentially taint the prospective jurors’ answers or
point of view [and] permits each party the opportunity to evaluate the questions proposed by their
adversary”).
The defendant claims that “questioning conducted exclusively by the Court further
hampers the ability to uncover important information about jurors because it places jurors in a
subordinate position heightening their reluctance to be candid.” (Dkt. No. 342 at 13). The
defendant’s motion does not expand upon this conclusory assertion, but instead cites “research”
that appears to broadly recommend in-depth voir dire. (/d. at 13-14). But there is no reason to
1428 (S.D.N.Y. 1983) (rejecting defense request for attorney-conducted voir dire and noting that
court-conducted voir dire has resulted in the “empanelling of fair and impartial juries”; “And this
has been true of cases that have attracted in advance of trial the widest publicity in the news media
over extended periods of time.”).
DOJ-OGR-00005252
Extracted Information
Dates
Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00005252.jpg |
| File Size | 753.2 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.6% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,282 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 16:57:57.627874 |