In a recent case coming out of a Massachusetts court, the defendant lost his appeal challenging convictions of two counts of rape. The defendant’s argument centered around the jury selection process prior to his trial; according to the defendant, several of the jurors were too biased to be fair and impartial deciders in his case. The court of appeals disagreed and affirmed the defendant’s original convictions.
Facts of the Case
According to the opinion, the defendant was charged with rape after his DNA was found to match with semen that had been recovered from a victim in 2009. Between 2009 and this identification, the victim had not known who had assaulted her, but after the discovery, the defendant was located and brought forward for trial.
Before the trial began, the court conducted a standard process in which it allowed each attorney to object to potential jury members that they thought would be unfit to decide the case. On the second day of this jury selection, the judge asked prospective jurors two questions: (1) whether they thought false accusations of sexual assault were rare or infrequent, and (2) whether someone who comes forward claiming sexual assault must be telling the truth, if she has put herself through the process of indicating a sexual assault occurred.