Take 3 on Diddy’s Jury Selection
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Jury selection in Sean “Diddy” Combs’s Manhattan Federal Court sex-trafficking trial hit an unexpected delay on May 9 after Judge Arun Subramanian decided he wanted lawyers to make their final challenges against prospective jurors right before opening statements on May 12. The process was supposed to take place this morning, but Subramanian said he was concerned that if the panel was finalized today, something could come up with one or more jurors this weekend, and they would be down a juror or alternate.
Although prospective jurors were not at court, Diddy kept up his demure outfit and demeanor. The 12 jurors and six alternates will be selected from a group of more than 40 possible panelists who were screened for potential biases individually, and then questioned about their background in several groups, this week. On Monday, Diddy’s defense team and prosecutors will have the opportunity to use their peremptory strikes against prospects they want booted. A peremptory strike means that lawyers can ask for a possible juror to be removed without giving a reason. (The caveat is that lawyers can’t use peremptory strikes in a discriminatory way, such as trying to exclude every woman prospective juror from the panel.)
Delay aside, lawyers’ comments during the two-hour proceeding lifted the veil on bombshells we might expect from early testimony. Prosecutors revealed that an escort will be among the first witnesses called.
One other twist from today’s proceeding: The defense also said it wants to bring up alleged evidence that Diddy and Casandra “Cassie” Ventura (“Victim-1” in charging papers) hit each other, in an effort to undermine prosecutors’ claims that he coerced her into sex acts. “I think we’re probably going to refer to it as domestic violence,” lead defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said. “It’s relevant in terms of the coercing aspect.” If Cassie and Diddy had a history of being domestically violent against each other, Agnifilo said, the rapper wouldn’t think his actions coercive because “that’s the way she is around some of those issues.”
This story has been updated throughout.
