Apparently, in this federal judge’s court, it doesn’t always pay to tell the truth. ‘And The Truth Shall Set You Free’ didn’t work for this prospective juror.
WOMAN SENTENCED TO INDEFINITE JURY DUTY AFTER MAKING RACIST REMARKS ON A QUESTIONNAIRE
She said the people she least admired were 'African-Americans, Hispanics and Haitians'
Mail Online
April 6, 2011
A female juror in a high-profile American mafia murder trial was sentenced to indefinite jury duty after giving racist answers to a court questionnaire.
The Asian woman in her 20s was asked along with hundreds of others to provide answers to the survey prior to serving on the jury for the trial of crime boss Vincent Basciano.
But the woman enraged a Federal Court judge in New York by answering the question, 'Name three people you least admire', with the answer: 'African-Americans, Hispanics and Haitians.'
When asked by a judge at Brooklyn Federal Court to explain her answer, she replied: 'You always hear about them in the news doing something.'
The woman, known only as 'Juror No. 799', went on to claim all police officers are lazy, and only use their sirens to bypass traffic jams.
Lawyers in the case successfully requested she be removed from jury duty in Basciano's trial due to her 'inappropriate' comments.
A furious judge, Nicholas Garaufis, held up the woman's questionnaire in court and told her: 'This is an outrage, and so are you!'
Referring to her racist answers, Judge Garaufis sarcastically asked the juror: 'Why didn't you put Asians down also?'
The woman replied: 'Maybe I should have.'
Jurors in America have been known to try to escape jury duty by providing outlandish answers to jury questionnaires.
But the Asian woman's views evidently backfired, as she has since been told she will serve on the jury until the judge deems her ready for release.
Judge Garaufis added: 'She's coming back [today], Thursday and Friday - and until the future, when I am ready to dismiss her.'
Vincent 'Vinny Gorgeous' Basciano is due to stand trial for murder after allegedly ordering the killing of Randolph Pizzolo in 2004.
Basciano, who is already serving a life sentence for murder, allegedly ordered the 'hit' from in prison and faces the death penalty if convicted again.
One thousand prospective jurors have filled out questionnaires for the Basciano case, approaching the Eastern District of New York record of 1,089 summoned for crime boss John Gotti's trial 20 years ago.
Nearly half of the jurors are removed before they even get to court for questioning due to language barriers, fear of the Mafia or their extreme views for and against the death penalty.
The panel members that do get selected for the trial will be anonymous and transported to the courthouse by U.S. marshals to thwart any possibility of jury tampering.
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