Viktor Bout Jury Forewoman Saw "Lord of War"

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Sun Nov 06, 2011 at 05:30:00 PM EST
Tags: Viktor Bout (all tags)

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The New York Times had an interview with the jury forewoman in the Viktor Bout trial earlier this week. Viktor Bout's wife, Alla Bout, who attended all of the trial except for the verdict return, has told a Russian newspaper that Bout's lawyers will challenge the verdict based on the interview. The article says "over the last few weeks" she has become something of an expert on Viktor Bout. It also says:

Another thing also became obvious: her knowledge of Mr. Bout was more expansive than she had realized. I had seen that terrible Nicolas Cage movie,” she said, a reference to the film “Lord of War,” which is believed to have been inspired by Mr. Bout, “and I had no idea it was about this guy.”

I wonder when exactly she realized this. Was it while the trial was going on or after the verdict was rendered? From the "past few weeks" reference, it could have been either. [More...]

In federal court, it is customary for the judge, rather than the lawyers, to voir dire the jury. If the lawyers request to personally question the jurors, some judges will allow them a few minutes to do so.

In Viktor Bout's trial, both sides presented written voir dire questions they wanted the Judge to ask the jurors. (I don't know if they personally quizzed the jurors as well.) Viktor Bout's counsel submitted two questions regarding media (Document #60, filed 09/02/11), one of which asked if the potential jurors had seen any film that "discussed or portrayed Viktor Bout in any fashion."

The transcript of the questions actually posed by the judge is not publicly available on PACER, so it's possible the judge never asked those exact questions. But surely in a high-profile case such as this, the judge would have asked them about their media exposure to Viktor Bout and the case.

The forewoman makes it clear she didn't realize the film she saw was about Bout at the time of jury selection or when the trial began.

But, if she realized it during the "past few weeks", that is, before the jury began deliberating, how did she learn this? The jurors signed an oath not to do internet research or follow social media on the case. It's an instruction in every federal case that jurors not discuss the case with each other before they retire to deliberate.

My guess is either (1) someone told her after the trial and the reference to "the last few weeks" was the reporter's mis-combination of two issu