UNDERNEWS: FEDS GOING TO GREAT LENGTHS TO RIG MOUSSAOUI JURY

UNDERNEWS: FEDS GOING TO GREAT LENGTHS TO RIG MOUSSAOUI JURY

[The jury questionnaire includes unconstitutional inquiries concerning support of death penalty and social contacts with Arabs. Can you imagine a potential juror being asked, "Do you socialize with black people?" The death penalty question is unconstitutional because one is allowed a juror of one's peers and, as the ABC News story below indicates, that means a juror split between death penalty supporters and those opposed]JERRY MARKON WASHINGTON POST - The Justice Department's proposed questionnaire for potential jurors, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, contains . . . 89 questions, ranging from requests for highly specific biographical data to queries about whether the candidate ever worked in an airport or socializes "with any people of Arab descent." . . ."This is like the normal jury selection process on steroids. It's awfully extensive," said Andrew G. McBride, a former federal prosecutor in Alexandria who has closely followed the case. McBride said the government is trying to "ferret out" potential jurors who oppose the death penalty or those who may tell the judge they could vote to impose death but "when the moment comes, they are not able to do so." . . .Among the 89 questions on the form are requests for biographical data, including the jurors' names, ages and marital status; the educational level and occupation of each of their children; their religion and how often they worship; and whether they belong to groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association and the Rotary Club.[Other questions include: Are you, or any relatives, of Arab descent? Do/have you worked with any people of Arab descent? ]ABC NEWS MAY 2004 - The pending execution of Timothy McVeigh comes at a time of deep and growing ambivalence about the death penalty, to the point that bare majorities of Americans favor a moratorium on executions — or even a law replacing them with mandatory life in prison.Most people, 63 percent, support the death penalty when no other option is presented. But that's down from a high of 80 percent seven years ago, and it's weakly held: Support for executions drops to 46 percent when life without parole is offered as an alternative. . . This ABC News -Washington Post poll finds broad agreement with two other arguments against the death penalty: That it's applied unfairly across jurisdictions, and that innocent people are sometimes executed. And the strongest argument in favor - that it prevents killers from killing again - is also achieved by life in prison without parole. Given these views, 51 percent of Americans say they'd support a law replacing the death penalty with mandatory life; 46 percent would oppose such legislation. . . Fifty-one percent also say they'd support a nationwide moratorium on the death penalty while a commission studies whether it's been administered fairly.