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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 527
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 01:09 pm: | 
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This defendant's ass is grass
http://new.blackvoices.com/entertainment/bv-oprah081704,0,2497205.story?coll=bv- entertainment-features
From the Chicago Tribune
Oh my! Oprah chosen for jury
By Glenn Jeffers and Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporters
August 17 2004
Holding a copy of "Anna Karenina" while searching for a breadless turkey sandwich in one of the busiest criminal courthouses in the nation, TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey seemed confident she would not be picked to be a juror Monday.
But after 4 1/2 hours of jury selection--including her initial statement to the judge that she was not sure she could be impartial toward a defendant who would not testify--Winfrey was sworn in as one of 12 jurors in the murder trial of Dion Coleman, 27.
Previously a low-profile murder case, the Coleman trial instantly became what is known at the Cook County Criminal Courts Building as "a heater case"--or what most would call a media circus.
According to authorities, Coleman shot and killed Walter Holley, 23, following a fistfight on Feb. 25, 2002, over a fake $50 bill Coleman allegedly gave Holley.
The trial is expected to last three days, for which the billionaire media mogul will be paid $17.20 per day, just as the other jury members are.
"This was a straight-up jury selection, just like any other," Judge James Linn said after Winfrey returned to the jury room after her selection and drew cheers from fellow jurors.
The 75-year-old courthouse, known simply as "26th and Cal," is among the city's grittiest locales, with crowds of defendants, their families and friends hanging out in the halls of the building waiting for hundreds of cases to be called.
Cops wait around to testify, and defense attorneys sometimes negotiate with their clients for cash payment on the spot.
Winfrey's arrival brought a touch of celebrity excitement the building hasn't dealt with since singer R. Kelly first appeared in 2002 to face charges in an ongoing child pornography case.
Perpetually decorated for Mardi Gras, the second-floor grill where Winfrey, unable to find the breadless turkey, settled for a tuna sandwich, is the last refuge for smokers in the administration building.
Smoke hovers in the fluorescent lighting as lawyers and clients talk at lunch tables or clerks complain about their workload.
Winfrey, who entered the building about 10:15 a.m. for a security screening, used a back door typically used for judges and sheriff's officers ... A security officer swiped her with a wand and then she was taken through another back door into the administration building where the jury pool is kept.
At lunchtime, Winfrey briefly spoke to reporters, explaining that she was ordered to attend jury duty after dodging it twice for a trip to Africa and a sweeps week.
Thomas Geraghty, director of the Bluhm Legal Clinic at the Northwestern University School of Law, said reforms of the last 10 to 15 years have made it much more difficult for those with prestigious and time-consuming occupations to wriggle out of jury duty.
"The goal, which is admirable, has been to have more people involved in the process," he said.
If he were Coleman's attorney, Geraghty said his decision on whether to keep Winfrey on the panel would have depended on the facts of the case, but he said Winfrey strikes him as someone who would be honest about her thoughts.
"I don't know her personally, but I think the challenge would be to get to know something about her and her thoughts on the process in [jury questioning]," he said.
It proved to be less of a problem when Linn interviewed Winfrey during the selection process.
After introducing herself, Winfrey said she was unsure whether she could be impartial in rendering a verdict if Coleman did not testify.
"I'm not sure [I can] without hearing both sides of the story," she said.
"So, Mr. Coleman might not receive a fair trial from you?" Linn asked.
"No, no," Winfrey said. "I just like to hear both sides of the case."
After Winfrey assured him that she could render a verdict based solely on the evidence, Linn asked again if Coleman's silence would influence her.
After a long pause, Winfrey said, "No."
"You're hesitating," Linn said.
"No, I will not hold it against him," Winfrey said.
Winfrey isn't a complete stranger to the courtroom setting, having been the target of lawsuits in years past. In 2000 she settled a suit filed by two photographers who charged that Harpo Productions used promotion photographs without authorization.
Most notably, Winfrey won a lawsuit in 1998 filed against her by Texas cattlemen who accused her show of defaming their products.
An activist she interviewed on her show had warned that mad cow disease might find its way to U.S. beef supplies, which the cattlemen claimed sent beef prices tumbling.
A federal jury cleared her and the show, which led Winfrey to emerge from the Amarillo, Texas, courthouse and declare "Free speech not only lives, it rocks."
It remains to be seen whether Winfrey would automatically be voted as foreman by the group. However, Geraghty said those in perceived positions of authority have been known to decline the foreman's job.
"They think they are so dominant they would affect the decision-making process," he said.
After they were seated, Winfrey and the other jurors were in the courtroom for another 90 minutes as prosecutors and defense attorneys delivered their opening statements and interviewed victim Walter Holley's mother, Irene, and his brother, Robert.
Linn, a judge with a reputation for working late hours and being somewhat flamboyant, dismissed the jury shortly before 6:30 p.m. and instructed them not to talk about the case or their fellow jurors.
Sitting in his small, second-floor courtroom decorated with artistic prints, Linn told them that the trial would reconvene at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday. He said he expected deliberations to begin on Wednesday.
"I think it would be inappropriate to talk about each other and who you are on a jury with," Linn said.
Coleman's mother Lorraine, 47, said she was not sure how Winfrey's presence would affect her son's trial.
Fighting back sobs, she said she just wanted Coleman, a high-school graduate with a daughter, to come home.
"I'm getting tired of the case myself," she said. "I miss him a lot. He's good."
Coleman allegedly gave Holley a fake $50 bill in exchange for real cash in the 4400 block of West West End Avenue, said Tom Stanton, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.
After learning the bill was a fake, Holley returned to where he saw Coleman earlier and the two got into a fistfight, authorities said. After friends broke up the melee, Coleman left, but returned a short time later with a gun and shot Holley, Stanton said.
Despite sitting on a murder case, Winfrey said earlier in the day she didn't expect the details of the graphic crime would overwhelm her.
"Everything I could hear in a trial I've already heard on my show," she said. "I've met a lot of interesting people ... and got some show ideas."
Copyright © 2004, The Chicago Tribune
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Bleekindigo
Veteran Poster
Username: Bleekindigo
Post Number: 56
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 02:52 pm: |
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Dangerous I think. I wouldn't want Oprah on a jury selected in my defense unless she thought I was innocent. She's Oprah!! She's Oprah and she's rich and she's respected and that's power.
I don't know, it just doesn't seem fair to put Oprah in a room with folks who have to decide the fate of a persons life.
Depending on the jury of course, just imagine the influence she could have on the deciding factor. Not that i'm saying she would excercise that power, but sometimes folks don't have to exercise the power that they have--it exercises itself.
Oprah-struck, billionaire-struck, star-struck, power-struck I mean take your choice, it's Oprah--and to many folks, she is all of these things--not just some woman on the jury. What effect does that have on the entire process--
Some how it just don't seem right!!!!
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 538
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 02:58 pm: |
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That's just it. As a defendant I would not want her on my jury unless I had an iron clad alibi and was going to make a hell of a witness when I got on the stand--I was a choirboy unjustly accused, framed, etc.
As a defense attorney I would not want her unless I was going to try to convince my client to plead guilty ("Oprah will fry you if she thinks you are lying")
I mean, she is going to be the foreman on the jury. And she is going to vote to convict this dude unless he has an absolutely iron clad story--she done already said she might have a problem if he doesn't take the stand (she was just being honest--most people do).
In Missouri a defense attorney gets a number of strikes for cause--I sure would have used one of them on her.
I don't know, maybe he thinks she will anger a male member of the jury and he will hang it up to spite her-- |
Bleekindigo
Veteran Poster
Username: Bleekindigo
Post Number: 57
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 03:18 pm: |
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"After introducing herself, Winfrey said she was unsure whether she could be impartial in rendering a verdict if Coleman did not testify."
"I'm not sure [I can] without hearing both sides of the story," she said."
Shouldn't that comment have been enough to dismiss Mrs. Winfrey? She said that she was not sure that she could be impartial. I mean, we never are, impartiality is a myth, but still everyone just doesn't say that there is a possibility that they will not be impartial out loud and if they do--during the selection process--wouldn't they, shouldn't they, aren't they usually dismissed??
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 539
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 03:28 pm: |
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They rehabilitated her when she said she could still give him a fair trial I guess--at that point the defense attorney should have been making a motion to strike her --but maybe he or she is star struck too--"I got Oprah on my jury".
Boy, if I was standing trial for murder I would have told my attorney to get rid of her when she came in the room. Don't even let her sit down good.
He is going to be soooo convicted! |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1020
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 03:47 pm: |
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Well, since this is a case of black-on-black-crime, one brother killing another one over the sum of $50.00, I think a fair verdict will be rendered. I believe families of both the victim and the defendendat are in the court room so either way, somebody is going to be unhappy. It is also reported that Oprah has been furiously taking notes from her front-row jury set. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 541
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 03:53 pm: |
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Ah ah ah, Cynique:
No verdict or plea has been entered yet. Until then these are charges and allegations. We don't know what the alleged shooter's defense is--maybe he is going to say that he is not the man who returned and shot the decedent.
Boy this dude is sooooo convicted. I mean, how could Oprah face her fanatical followers, those slobbering O-Maniacs, if she appears soft on crime?
(No offense or disparagement intended to any O-Maniacs who visit or post here, or to Ms. Winfrey or any of her fine products) |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1022
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 04:16 pm: |
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Well, I think it will be fair in that Oprah can't be accused of being disloyal to her race by convicting a brother, when who the brother is alleged to have shot was another black man. Likewise, she can't be accused of showing favoritism and finding the defendant innocent just because he is a black man. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 812
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 11:32 pm: |
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Actually, I think having Oprah as a juror might be beneficial to the defendent. Because I don't think Oprah would want to have ANYTHING to do with a case where an innocent man is convicted of an crime (especially for murder, considering that IL criminal justice system is so fault that the state recently release a couple hundred guys from Death Row).
Can you imagine the flak she would catch for that?
Therefore, I think Oprah participation requires that the prosecution present a near-ironclad case to convict.
And come on now! WHAT lawyer would reject the opportunity of enjoying the lights/camera/action that follows the world biggest daytime TV star and sole Black billionairess? This is the kind of heat that glory-seeking, ambulance-chasing attorneys DREAM of. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1029
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 12:12 pm: |
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Well, Jury-foreman Oprah and her panel found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder after 2 hours of deliberation. Oprah says it was one of the saddest days of her life. Her fellow jurors reported that Oprah was very down to earth and normal, and, to no one's surprise, they will all appear on one of her upcoming TV shows to discuss their serving-on-a-murder-case experience. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 547
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 01:06 pm: |
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Abm:
No lawyer likes getting a foot in the ass, much less on national news. Bet you this defendant files a Motion that he was ineffectivly assisted by counsel because he didn't strike Oprah from the jury.
Cynique:
What I say? I am surprised they stayed out that long. I thought with Oprah on there they'd be back in 15 minutes--and they're all going to be on tv discussing it--what a set up! |
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