Global Courant 2023-04-14 00:17:29
WILMINGTON, Del. Jury selection in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case began Thursday morning as the Delaware court works to identify 12 jurors and six alternates to hear arguments against Fox News and Fox Corp.
Prospective jurors will be interviewed by Judge Eric Davis on Thursday and Friday about their ability to deliver an impartial opinion as he and the attorneys narrow the jury group.
Potential jurors were handed a list of questions designed to detect potential bias in the jury pool and asked to raise their hand if they answered yes to a question. The judge then began questioning the jurors as to why they answered yes and whether they believed they could be impartial, despite possible connections to or personal opinions about the case or the parties.
Here are some of the questions asked of potential jurors:
Do you personally know of Dominion or Fox employees, or have you ever been employed by or otherwise associated with any of these parties? Do you personally know, or do you have an opinion about, any of the following persons who can be identified at trial? Mike Lindell, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell. Have you or a close friend’s relative ever worked in a newsroom? Do you avoid Fox News, television, or other social media programming, and if so, would it affect your assets fair and impartial are?
Dominion, which produces voting machines, alleges Fox News damaged its reputation by promoting false claims it was connected to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, paid bribes to politicians and “rigged” the 2020 presidential election by sending millions of votes for Donald Trump to to run against Joe Biden.
In a victory for Dominion at a pre-trial hearing, the judge ruled that jurors will be instructed that all of these claims are false.
Each side’s legal team is given six challenges, allowing it to eliminate jurors. But outside legal experts note that neither side gets a wish list in this process.
“Delaware isn’t as strict about conflict as maybe other states are,” said David Finger, a media attorney who practices in Delaware. “It’s a small state. People are generally only separated from everyone else by one or two degrees. The fact that you might know an attorney on the matter may or may not be enough to get you rejected.”
The trial is expected to last six weeks, during which jurors will be asked to consider whether Fox News acted with willful falsehood or reckless disregard for the truth when broadcasting and publicizing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and whether damages were due. They will also be asked to consider whether Fox Corp. sufficiently involved to be liable for the alleged defamation.
There will be no video or audio broadcast of the process. On Thursday, Davis turned down a request from a coalition of media organizations to broadcast audio of the trial.
“I’ve gone as far as I can go regarding access,” he told lawyers Thursday morning ahead of jury selection.
The jurors will be anonymous to the public and media – identified only by numbers – but will be free to speak to the media after the verdict is handed down if they wish.
The selection process is critical, as the jurors must reach a unanimous decision to find the Fox defendants guilty of libel.
Anthony Michael Glassman, an experienced media attorney who has represented both media and their subjects in media cases, said the lawyers hope the judge will allow them to understand jurors’ views on the underlying partisan issues.
“I’ve tried enough jury trials to know — unless I’m in the courtroom trying the case or unless I’m at least there watching the jury — you can always be surprised,” he told NBC News.
