Jury Selection in Martin Shkreli Trial Begins With Name Calling
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORDJUNE 26, 2017
A number of potential jurors in the fraud trial of Martin Shkreli were dismissed in quick succession on Monday morning
after calling the defendant “a snake,” “the most hated man in America” and “the face of corporate greed.”
Mr. Shkreli is on trial at the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, charged with eight counts of securities and wire fraud.
After the potential juror had stepped down, Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer for Mr. Shkreli, said, “So much for the presumption of innocence.”
The potential jurors were questioned at a sidebar with Judge Matsumoto, defense lawyers, prosecutors and one reporter from a news pool.
“A person that puts profit over everything else?”
When Judge Matsumoto told prospective jurors that Mr. Shkreli’s work in pharmaceuticals
was not on trial, the prosecutor Alixandra Smith corrected her.
The negative comments built up to the point that Mr. Brafman began to signal to Judge Matsumoto when potential jurors had said enough
that he could challenge them for cause, to stop them from going “on a tirade against Mr. Shkreli
“The price has been going up in the last few years, so they can’t afford their drugs,” the prospective juror said of his parents.
Several potential jurors on Monday blamed Mr. Shkreli broadly for the problems of the pharmaceutical industry.
