Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s federal jury selection is in open court, with all questions asked in earshot of the press and public. But down in Fall River, the same process in Aaron Hernandez’s state murder trial is drowned out by white noise.
It’s a purposeful effort to exclude the public from this critical phase of the trial, and it’s a preposterous process to behold.
The former Patriot, his defense team, state prosecutors and Superior Court Judge E. Susan Garsh huddle around potential jurors at sidebar. The sound of static is pumped through court speakers into the gallery, effectively muffling every word.
An hour north, in U.S. District Court in Boston, we listen to every word as the potential jurors recount how the Boston Marathon bombing affected their lives. Reporters tweet, write and talk on TV about the blow-by-blow. Outsiders learn how those who will judge Tsarnaev are picked.
In Hernandez’s state court jury selection, reporters are allowed only a pen and paper to take notes on the nothingness they are witnessing. If reporters want to find out what was said, they have to chase excused jurors down the street and hope they’re forthcoming about what was said.
CNN wrote a letter to Garsh earlier this month asking her to open up jury selection to television cameras.
“The presumption in favor of unrestricted access is at its strongest where, as here, the case is a matter of public interest and the public’s ability to evaluate the court’s exercise of its decision-making authority is at stake,” CNN’s lawyers wrote.
Garsh denied the request and said allowing reporters and members of the public to watch the process — awash with white noise — was perfectly reasonable.
“I’ve never heard of them pumping white noise into the room,” said Elliot Savitz, a longtime criminal defense attorney, who is not involved in either trial. “The whole thing should be open as long as private matters aren’t being discussed.”
Juror privacy is the main argument against allowing the public to watch the selection process in state court. If someone has to discuss an intimate detail about their lives, why should the whole world have to know?
There’s a way around that, and it’s being done in federal court. If a potential juror is asked something excessively personal, Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. simply presses the mute button so the gathered masses can’t hear.
But in Garsh’s courtroom, jury selection remains ?totally muted and secret.