GREENSBORO -- John Edwards spent a career practicing the art of persuasion, first as a trial lawyer wooing juries for big awards and then as a politician hunting for votes.
On Thursday – flanked by his parents, his daughter Cate and three attorneys – the former Democratic presidential contender began the process of what legal experts say can be a key step toward a courtroom victory or loss: selecting the 12 people who will render his next verdict.
One hundred men and women from across the federal court district stretching from Statesville in the west and Durham to the east filed into the benches of a third-floor courtroom in the federal courthouse in downtown Greensboro.
Then, Judge Catherine Eagles, in a 30-minute introduction that was conversational and sometimes light-hearted, told the potential jurors what 16 of them — 12 jurors and four alternate jurors — might be doing for the next month and a half.
“This is not a case about whether Mr. Edwards is a good husband or a good politician,” Eagles told them. “But this is a case about whether Mr. Edwards violated campaign law.”
Edwards, 58, is accused of conspiring to violate federal campaign finance laws and accepting illegal contributions in a case that is as much made for the tabloids as it is for legal scholars studying the reach of federal regulations governing elections.
Prosecutors contend he secretly obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars from two wealthy donors, one who no longer is alive and another who is more than 100 years old, to provide living expenses for a paramour who was pregnant with his child.
That woman, Rielle Hunter, was a campaign videographer who gave birth to a daughter, Frances Quinn, at a time when Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, was battling the cancer that took her life in late 2010.
Fred Baron, a wealthy Texas lawyer, and Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, a benefactor, provided more than $900,000 to living expenses for Hunter, prosecutors say. They argue that not only should that money have been reported as campaign contributions, but that it exceeded legal limits.
Eagles, a federal judge who many years ago worked in the same firm as Alan Duncan, a Greensboro lawyer who Edwards recently added to his team, told potential jurors Thursday that those selected would be part of an “interesting case.”
But she cautioned them that serving on a jury in federal court about a matter of campaign finance law was not going to be anything like they might have seen on such TV dramas as “Law & Order,” “CSI” or even “Judge Judy.”
“I know this will shock you,” Eagles said, “but on shows like that they sometimes make stuff up. Put that out of your mind. I will tell you what the law is.
“There are many ways TV shows are unrealistic,” the judge continued. “And one of them is on TV shows – justice only takes an hour.”
In movies, she said, it might be two hours.
But prosecutors and defense attorneys project that Edwards’ trial could last through May.
Discretion urged
The potential jurors were sent to a private room to fill out questionnaires after Eagles told them what to expect. She urged them not to tell anyone they might be selected to deliberate the Edwards trial. That way, she said, they wouldn’t be in an awkward position of listening to opinions about the case outside the courtroom, something that is prohibited.
Questioning of jurors in open court is expected to begin Tuesday.
Whether Edwards gets the verdict he wants may well depend on whether he gets the jury he wants. Lawyers say a case can be won or lost in jury selection.
Valerie Hans, a law professor at Cornell University who has written extensively on the American jury system, said this case, rooted in politics, could be a tough one for selecting jurors.
“I am not sure I know who would be a good juror in this case for either side,” Hans said.
Even a prospective juror’s political leanings may not point to how they would vote on Edwards’ guilt or innocence, she said.
“This might be a case where the Republicans assumed everything all along, but there are Democrats who feel betrayed,” Hans added.
The names of the potential jurors who arrived in court Thursday were pulled from voter registration rolls and driver’s license lists. The Middle District of North Carolina stretches from Statesville to the west and Durham to the east. It includes Orange County, where Edwards lives, just outside Chapel Hill.
The opening of jury selection drew a large group of media to downtown Greensboro, with TV trucks parked along the side of the road and camera crews near the courthouse steps.
When Edwards arrived about 15 minutes before court was scheduled to begin, a newswoman from the “Today” show asked him how he was feeling. He responded that he would not be answering any questions.
Though defense attorneys have filed hundreds of pages of court documents hoping to limit evidence and testimony to the topic of campaign finance law, they are likely to probe jurors on their thoughts and opinions on what might seem to be very personal topics.
Because many people in the jury pool are likely to have heard of Edwards and his woes, they will be asked to fill out questionnaires that prosecutors and defense attorneys will see before the individual questioning phase.
Potential jurors not only will be asked about their familiarity with the case, according to court documents filed for pre-trial hearings, but they will be questioned about whether they can limit their deliberations to evidence presented in the courtroom and not the voluminous media reports that have circulated for years on Edwards, Hunter, and Elizabeth Edwards.
Opinions on affairs
Lawyers are likely to delve into the opinions of potential jurors on extramarital affairs, jury consultants say.
Philip K. Anthony, the chief executive officer of DecisionQuest, a trial consulting firm in Los Angeles, said prosecutors and defense attorneys can get at some of the more prickly issues by first using questionnaires, then seeking more embellishment with non-direct questions in an open courtroom.
“With a written document,” Anthony said, “people feel safe to answer more candidly.”
“Then in an open courtroom,” he added, “you might ask a question such as ‘How do you think the facts of Mr. Edwards’ private life are going to affect your opinion of him?’”
Edwards’ attorneys are likely to be looking for people who believe that extramarital affairs are often something that happen in marriages but are not a deal-breaker, said Marshall Hennington, a trial and jury consultant based in California.
The consultants also said lawyers also will be looking to root out “stealth jurors,” a phrase used to describe someone actively seeking to participate in a trial. Studies show that anywhere from 15 percent to 20 percent of a jury pool can fall into that category.
Sometimes those so-called “stealth jurors” are looking to profit financially from their service through book and movie deals. Other times they have an ax to grind, a point to make or fancy the possibility of being in the limelight of a high-profile case.
Most jurors, consultants say, think of jury service as a civic duty, taking it seriously and ultimately wanting to do a good and fair job.
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