Defense Wants Freddie Gray Trial Jurors To Be Sequestered
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The eyes of the world will be on Baltimore next month as the first officer charged in Freddie Gray's death goes on trial. But how much contact should the jurors have with the outside world?
Investigator Mike Hellgren has the defense attorney's new move to sequester them.
Putting jurors in a hotel with no cell phones and limited TV for the duration of the trial is a rare move. It's expensive and further limits the jury pool---but denying it could lead to an appeal.
The officers charged in Gray's death lost their bid to move the trials from Baltimore. Now, as the first one looms---for Officer William Porter---his lawyers want the jury sequestered, isolated from the public, arguing in a new motion, "Additional precautions are necessary" and "There are measures we are taking to make sure CNN does not turn up at your door."
"It's very rare anywhere. It's really rare in Maryland," said legal analyst Andrew Levy.
One of the last times was for late former Governor Marvin Mandel's corruption trials.
Nationally, trials with sequestered juries are some of the most famous: Casey Anthony, John Gotti and George Zimmerman. In his case, jurors ate steak dinners at Outback and had field trips to Ripley's Believe It or Not. It all cost taxpayers $33,000.
And then there's the trial of the century, OJ Simpson. Several jurors there complained they felt like prisoners.
"Who else could understand that but another sequestered juror?" one said.
New York used to mandate sequestered juries in violent felony cases but no longer does; Missouri requires them in death penalty cases.
"It's expensive, it's cumbersome," Levy said. "It creates an enormous burden on the jurors."
But in the Gray case, the judge's denial of a sequestered jury could lay the groundwork for an appeal.
"This is really a chess game," Levy said. "This is what these defense lawyers should be doing."
If the judge does not sequester the jurors, the defense wants them to have secure transportation from a secret location to the courthouse.
In the motion, defense attorneys worry jurors could find their client guilty to avoid another riot.
Porter's trial is scheduled to start on November 30.
