Saturday, September 2, 2017

And he disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan.

From Public Enemy from Harper's Magazine. I saw this on Twitter some weeks ago and assumed it must be fake news. The fact that it is in Harper's doesn't rule out this being a fraud but does increase the probability that it might be true.

I rather hope that it is as a testament to the glorious quixotic variety of humanity.
From the jury selection process that took place over three days in June for the trial of Martin Shkreli, an investor and hedge fund founder who is facing eight counts of securities and wire fraud. In 2015, when Shkreli was CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company raised the price of its drug Daraprim by 5,000 percent. In 2016, Shkreli was widely criticized for defending the 400 percent increase in the price of EpiPen, an emergency allergy injection sold by Mylan. More than two hundred potential jurors were excused from the trial. Judge Kiyo Matsumoto presided. Benjamin Brafman is a lawyer representing Shkreli.

[snip]

the court: Then I will excuse you from this case. Juror Number 10, please come forward.

juror no. 10: The only thing I’d be impartial about is what prison this guy goes to.

the court: Okay. We will excuse you. Juror 28, do you need to be heard?

juror no. 28: I don’t like this person at all. I just can’t understand why he would be so stupid as to take an antibiotic which H.I.V. people need and jack it up five thousand percent. I would honestly, like, seriously like to go over there —

the court: Sir, thank you.

juror no. 28: Is he stupid or greedy? I can’t understand.

the court: We will excuse you. Juror 41, are you coming up?

juror no. 41: I was looking yesterday in the newspaper and I saw the defendant. There was something about him. I can’t be fair. There was something that didn’t look right.

the court: All right. I’m going to excuse you. Juror Number 59, come on up.

juror no. 59: Your Honor, totally he is guilty and in no way can I let him slide out of anything because —

the court: Okay. Is that your attitude toward anyone charged with a crime who has not been proven guilty?

juror no. 59: It’s my attitude toward his entire demeanor, what he has done to people.

the court: All right. We are going to excuse you, sir.

juror no. 59: And he disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan.

No comments:

Post a Comment