Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyer Opposes Prosecutors’ Proposed Jury Questions

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The authorized counsel representing Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the previous boss of the now-defunct FTX change, has raised some questions concerning the authorities’s proposed queries throughout jury choice. The FTX co-founder faces a six-week trial, which can start with a jury choice course of on October 3, 2023.

The prosecutors and the protection counsel submitted their questions for jury choice on September 11. As Bitcoinist reported, the prosecutors challenged Sam Bankman-Fried’s proposed questions, calling it “unnecessarily intrusive.”

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyer Accuses Authorities Of Prejudice

In response to a court docket submitting on Friday, September 29, Bankman-Fried’s legal professional, Mark Cohen, argued that the questions proposed by the USA for jury choice comprise bias that might end in an unfair judgment for the defendant.

Cohen wrote within the letter to Decide Lewis Kaplan:

The Authorities’s proposed voir dire discourages full disclosure from potential jurors, fails to elicit adequate info to permit the protection to determine potential juror bias, and dangers tainting the jury by presenting the allegations in a prejudicial method.

Mark Cohen mentioned that the federal government’s proposed jury questions fail to attain the goals of a voir dire “in quite a few respects.” “Voir dire is a vital methodology of defending a defendant’s proper to trial by an neutral jury,” the letter had earlier famous.

SBF’s lawyer argued that the language used within the prosecutors’ proposed jury questions paints a relatively prejudiced picture of his shopper. “Particularly, by referring to “his fraud,” relatively than “his alleged fraud” or just “fraud,” the ultimate sentence in paragraph 3 improperly means that fraud by Mr. Bankman-Fried is a longtime truth,” Cohen mentioned a couple of specific paragraph.

Moreover, Sam Bankman-Fried’s authorized crew challenged that the federal government was going to “improperly” use a few of its proposed inquiries to instruct jurors. “These assertions are prejudicial and pointless to elicit satisfactory details about potential juror bias,” the letter learn.

In the end, Cohen requested that the court docket use Sam Bankman-Fried’s proposed voir dire, which he claims “will present a full and honest alternative to reveal bias or prejudice.”

SBF Trial Begins In A Few Days

Sam Bankman-Fried faces a possible 100-year jail sentence if discovered responsible of the alleged seven counts of fraud-related offenses. After jury choice on October 3, the trial will start absolutely on Wednesday, October 4, based on the trial calendar.

The trial is anticipated to start with the prosecution’s opening assertion in opposition to Bankman-Fried. The lately launched court docket schedule reveals that the previous FTX boss can have 15 full trial days in October and one other six in November.

Following the newest rejection of his non permanent launch, SBF will attend his first trial day from behind bars. The defendant has been held within the Metropolitan Detention Heart since Decide Lewis Kaplan revoked his bail in August.

Though Decide Kaplan refused to grant the liberty of Bankman-Fried on the phrases of trial preparation, he mentioned that SBF might arrive early on the courthouse on most days so as to put together along with his authorized crew earlier than the court docket sits.