IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE WESTERN DIVISION ------------------------------------------------------- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) VS. ) NO. 03-20111-Ml ) ) VERNICE KUGLIN, ) ) Defendant. ) ------------------------------------------------------- TRIAL PROCEEDINGS VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY BEFORE THE HONORABLE JON PHIPPS MCCALLA, JUDGE AUGUST 4, 2003 VOLUME I BRENDA PARKER OFFICIAL REPORTER SUITE 942 FEDERAL BUILDING 167 NORTH MAIN STREET MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE 38103 2 A P P E A R A N C E S Appearing on behalf of the Plaintiff: TERRELL L. HARRIS, ESQ. UNITED STATES ATTORNEY SUITE 800 FEDERAL BUILDING 167 NORTH MAIN STREET MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE 38103 By: JOSEPH MURPHY, ESQ. Appearing on behalf of the Defendant: LOWELL H. BECRAFT, JR. 209 LINCOLN STREET HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA 35801 ROBERT G. BERNHOFT, ESQ. 207 EAST BUFFALO STREET MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN 53202 3 1 MONDAY MORNING & AFTERNOON 2 AUGUST 4, 2003 3 The voir dire in this case began on this date, 4 Monday, August 4, 2003, at 10:35 o'clock a.m., when and 5 where evidence was introduced and proceedings were had as 6 follows: 7 8 ____________ 9 10 THE COURT: Are we about to ready to bring our 11 panel around so we can proceed with jury selection? 12 MR. BECRAFT: Your Honor, can I take up one 13 real quick matter? 14 THE COURT: Sure. 15 MR. BECRAFT: Friend of mine is a lawyer from 16 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, his name is Bob Bernhoft. He called 17 me and he wanted to help me with this case, and I have 18 invited him to come down and he's going to sit here, and I 19 wanted to introduce him to the court. He filed a motion 20 for pro hac vice admission, but what he's going to do is 21 just assist me during the course of the trial if the court 22 doesn't mind. 23 THE COURT: Sure, that's fine. 24 MR. BERNHOFT: Thank you, Judge. 25 THE COURT: Let me get your last name again. 4 1 2 MR. BERNHOFT: Yes, Bernhoft, B-E-R-N-H-O-F-T, 3 first name is Robert, and I filed a courtesy copy with 4 chambers of that pro hac vice motion that has got my bar 5 numbers, et cetera in there. 6 THE COURT: All right. That's fine. We can 7 bring the -- 8 THE CLERK: They're on their way. 9 MR. MURPHY: Judge, just one thing, I -- I 10 would like to discuss how we're going to handle voir dire 11 today. I would like to suggest that it might be a good 12 idea for the court to do it. This is -- this is a case 13 where they're alleging a good faith defense, I take it. 14 THE COURT: They are. 15 MR. MURPHY: Based on what has been provided to 16 me. 17 THE COURT: Right. 18 MR. MURPHY: And we need to just be real 19 careful that the jury doesn't get confused on what the law 20 is in these tax issues. It's a sensitive subject. 21 THE COURT: Well, I have been letting the 22 lawyers do a good portion of the voir dire. It certainly 23 seems to make most lawyers happy. 24 MR. BECRAFT: I wouldn't mind asking some 25 questions, Your Honor. 5 1 MR. MURPHY: I would rather you ask most of 2 them. 3 MR. BECRAFT: Oh, okay. 4 THE COURT: And I would -- Mr. Murphy -- I feel 5 like, Mr. Murphy -- of course, you always go first in 6 this -- that you can maybe deal with that issue also -- 7 MR. MURPHY: Yes, sir. 8 THE COURT: -- to some degree. I'll ask enough 9 questions so that you'll have plenty of time to organize 10 your voir dire. 11 MR. MURPHY: Yes, sir. Judge, I've got voir 12 dire organized, it's just -- you know, taxes are things 13 people have strong feelings about. 14 THE COURT: They don't like them. 15 MR. MURPHY: They don't like them. 16 THE COURT: Right, but I think y'all have to 17 deal with that and talk about people not being swayed by 18 that sort of point of view. 19 MR. MURPHY: Yes, sir, Your Honor. 20 THE COURT: Sure. 21 MR. MURPHY: Judge, there's just one other 22 thing. Mr. Becraft has submitted some materials to me 23 that the defense is going to use in its presentation of 24 the case, and just so he's not waylaid, at some point I 25 think it would be a good idea to sit down and talk about 6 1 how we're going to handle that, because if you read the 2 cases that deal with the question of how the defendant 3 proves their good faith defense, there's some things 4 that -- in that that bear -- what we take the position are 5 incorrect statements of the law, and generally people are 6 allowed to read those into the record -- portions of those 7 into the record, but the -- that document is not admitted. 8 There's some things that I have no doubt they're 9 admissible and I'm not going to oppose their introduction, 10 and there's other things that I may or may not oppose, but 11 it would be a good idea, I think, if we talked about it 12 beforehand. 13 MR. BECRAFT: If the floor is open, I'll tell 14 the court what I plan on doing, just so the court will 15 know in advance. Your Honor, in a tax evasion case or 16 willful failure to file case, intent to commit a crime is 17 real important. The government must prove that, and the 18 defense is, you know, basically good faith and lack of 19 criminal intent. Now, that requires, quite often, that 20 the defendants testify about their beliefs about the law, 21 and I want to tell the court that this is exactly what I'm 22 going to do, and it will probably eliminate certain 23 objections that Mr. Murphy is going to have. I'm going to 24 get up -- when we get up and give our opening statements, 25 I'm going to tell the jury that all she is going to 7 1 testify about is her beliefs about the law and that the 2 court is going to give the instructions on the law that is 3 relative to this case. When we start getting into the 4 meat of the defendant's motion, that's exactly what I'm 5 going to ask the defendant, you know, are you going to 6 testify about your beliefs about the law, and you 7 understand that the court is to instruct the jury on what 8 the law is itself. I think that giving that at least two 9 or three times, especially coming from the defense, 10 telling the jury in advance that she is just going to be 11 testifying about her beliefs probably eliminates a lot of 12 objections that come from the prosecution. And that's 13 what I intend on doing. I'm going to do that in opening. 14 I'm going to tell the jury that we're going to be 15 testifying about beliefs about the law, and I'm going to 16 tell the jury that you are going to instruct the jury on 17 the law, and the defendant will, in front of the jury when 18 she testifies, in essence, say the same thing. But I 19 think that addresses a lot of the government's objections. 20 THE COURT: Okay. Well, as soon as we get our 21 panel here, we'll start. I will go back and wait until 22 they get here. Be back as soon as they get here. 23 THE CLERK: All rise. 24 (Recess taken at 10:45 until 10:50 a.m.) 25 8 1 2 (Jury panel in at 10:50 a.m.) 3 THE COURT: Ladies and gentlemen, I want to 4 thank you for serving today as a juror. I know you're all 5 just anxious to be here, right? How many people don't 6 have power yet? Anybody? One person. Who is back there? 7 I'm going to let you go home if you want to. How are you 8 doing today? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm fine. 10 THE COURT: You would probably rather be here 11 because it's cooler. We got power about 8:30 last night 12 so maybe you will get it today. I thought we were going 13 to be last in the city, but -- where are you located? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Kirby and Mt. Moriah. 15 THE COURT: I don't know, it has been really 16 slow, but maybe you will get your power today. 17 Let me tell you, folks, how many people had 18 power for -- never lost power? Okay. All of you get to 19 be on the jury. How many of you were out of power for 20 more than a week? A lot of you. Yeah, how many more than 21 ten days? Yeah, I get to be in that group. More than 22 twelve days? Yeah, just two of us. Where are you -- 23 where do you live? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Me? 25 THE COURT: Yes, ma'am. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 9 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Over off of Lamar. 2 THE COURT: Yeah, I know, we were really slow 3 getting our power back. You got it yesterday? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 5 THE COURT: What time? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: This morning. 7 THE COURT: You got it this morning? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 9 THE COURT: I got mine late last night, so they 10 told me they were going to throw one more switch and see 11 if it came on, and actually it did. 12 Well, what we're going to do today is select a 13 jury in a criminal case and in order to do that, we're 14 going to have to -- I was waiting on Mrs. Saba to get 15 here. We have to first swear you all in, and so if you 16 will all stand and raise your right hand. Thank you. 17 THE CLERK: Do you and each of you solemnly 18 swear that the answers to the questions to be propounded 19 to you by the court in this case for which you may be 20 drawn as a juror to be the truth, the whole truth and 21 nothing but the truth, so help you God? 22 THE JURY PANEL: I do. 23 THE CLERK: You may be seated. 24 THE COURT: All right. What we're going to do 25 is we're going to call 14 names and have them sit up here VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 10 1 in the jury box. And, Mr. Tuggle, you may need to move 2 that TV back just a little bit for folks so that the ones 3 back there can see. The first person whose name is called 4 will be asked to sit in seat number one. That's the seat 5 closest to me on the first row, and the second person in 6 seat number two and so forth, all the way down to seat 7 seven, and then we're going to go to seat eight through 8 14. If your name is not called, that does not mean that 9 you will not be called as a juror; it just means that 10 we're going to ask these 14 individuals some questions. 11 Pay attention to the questions, though, as they're asked, 12 because you'll need to answer the same questions if your 13 name is called. 14 THE CLERK: Lashaunda Vasser. Walter White. 15 Larry Spurlin. Muhammad Salaam. William Vedder. Lee 16 Scott. Regina Starnes. Kay Gupta. Linda Saul. Andrew 17 Viverette. Jeffrey Stovall. Alphonso Smith. Frank 18 Vickers. Keith Smith. 19 THE COURT: Who is our first juror? 20 THE CLERK: Lashaunda Vasser. 21 THE COURT: I need to ask you a few questions 22 about being a juror in a criminal case, and the first 23 thing I usually start out is -- I start with Ms. Vasser, 24 and I ask what do you think is the most important 25 characteristic for a juror. Think about it if you were VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 11 1 somebody sitting over there on the other side, what would 2 be most important for you about a jury, what would you 3 want? Ms. Vasser, what's the most important 4 characteristic for a juror to have? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Honesty. 6 THE COURT: That's good. Okay. I'm going to 7 make a list here. 8 Let's go to Mr. White. Mr. White, what is 9 another characteristic? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: The ability to assess fact. 11 THE COURT: Ability to assess fact. All right. 12 I didn't get your name down right, so tell me your last 13 name again. 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Spurlin. 15 THE COURT: Spurlin, I knew I didn't have it 16 right. Mr. Spurlin, what is another characteristic that 17 you would want in a juror? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: To be open-minded. 19 THE COURT: Open minded. 20 Is it Mr. Salaam? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 22 THE COURT: What is another characteristic of a 23 juror? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Attentiveness. 25 THE COURT: Attentiveness, okay. So we have VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 12 1 got an honest person who is able to assess the facts who 2 is open-minded and attentive. 3 Is it Mr. Vedder? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 5 THE COURT: Another characteristic for a juror? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Common sense. 7 THE COURT: Common sense. Actually, I will 8 give an instruction on that. You should have common 9 sense. Apply your common sense. 10 Okay. Mr. Scott, another thing? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I guess you could say be 12 able to weigh the evidence. 13 THE COURT: Be able to make a decision, to 14 weigh the evidence. You know, it always gets a little 15 harder as we go along. 16 Ms. Starnes -- but we have left out a couple of 17 big things, a couple of big things -- what would you want 18 as a juror? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: To be impartial. 20 THE COURT: To be impartial. We have still got 21 some to go. We have got an honest person who is able to 22 assess the facts who is open-minded, attentive, uses their 23 common sense, is able to weigh the evidence and is 24 impartial. 25 All right. And, Mr. Smith, another thing you VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 13 1 would want from a juror? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I would want someone to be 3 a very good listener. 4 THE COURT: A good listener, absolutely. Good 5 listener. 6 All right. And, Ms. Vickers, something else? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: To be able to be 8 emotionally present here with what we're doing. 9 THE COURT: Emotionally -- what do you mean by 10 that? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, to not have our 12 thoughts and feelings about what's at home to be 13 emotionally present. 14 THE COURT: To be -- to be focused on the case. 15 I'm going to say focused on the case because the other was 16 a little -- I have got you there. Focused on the case. 17 Mr. Smith? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I would say someone that's 19 not prejudiced against anything. 20 THE COURT: Somebody who is not prejudiced, 21 exactly. Mr. Stovall, what is a kind of -- what types of 22 prejudice are we concerned about, because that's true -- 23 Mr. Stovall, I'm going back to Mr. Stovall. Because, Mr. 24 Smith, we have got a long list now, and we're down to an 25 honest person who is able to assess the facts, who is VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 14 1 open-minded, attentive, uses their common sense, who is 2 able to weigh the evidence, who is impartial, a good 3 listener, focuses on the case and who is not prejudice. 4 That's really a good list. I mean that's ten words which 5 are really good descriptors, and usually when I get to the 6 point on somebody who is not prejudiced or -- and somebody 7 said impartial, which is another way of saying that, we 8 start talking about what ways can people be prejudice. 9 What ways are people sometimes prejudice? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Race and religion. 11 THE COURT: Race and religion are common ways 12 in which people have prejudice. And, of course, it's 13 inappropriate to consider them, but it is important to 14 know that they're out there. And both of them have been 15 in the news a lot, so that's certainly -- certainly two 16 important ones. 17 Well, are there other things that -- is it Mr. 18 Viverette? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 20 THE COURT: Mr. Viverette, other things that 21 people can be prejudiced -- how old are you, Mr. 22 Viverette -- 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Sixty-four. 24 THE COURT: You're 64. Anybody ever prejudiced 25 because of age as far as you know? Maybe not, you have VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 15 1 never run into that. Ever heard about that, though? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I've heard of it. 3 THE COURT: Heard that people -- anybody older 4 than 64? I think I have gotten my senior most panelist. 5 We will have to wait -- I will remember that. 6 I will remember that. 7 Sometimes people will say you can't do the job 8 because you're 64, because you're 60, because you're over 9 55 -- 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's right. 11 THE COURT: -- whatever it is. And they don't 12 look at you and see that you get around, you do -- you're 13 perfectly capable and healthier than a lot of people who 14 are 40. Some people might not look at that. So that 15 would be a prejudice, a preconceived notion about 16 somebody's ability simply based on age, and that's never 17 happened to you? Nobody has ever -- 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 19 THE COURT: That's good. That's because you 20 don't look 64. 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Thank you. 22 THE COURT: I understand what you're saying 23 there. 24 Ms. Saul, another thing people can be prejudice 25 about? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 16 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, other than religion 2 and color? 3 THE COURT: Race, religion, age? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Gender could be another 5 one. 6 THE COURT: Gender? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh. 8 THE COURT: Do you think sometimes women are 9 treated differently than men? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I personally have not been, 11 but I have seen other people. 12 THE COURT: You think every football coach in 13 high school is automatically eligible to be the high 14 school principal? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 16 THE COURT: I'm not saying that's an area of 17 prejudice, but some people might say there does seem to be 18 sort of a disproportionate number of football coaches that 19 who gets to be principals of high schools. That's not 20 always true, and I don't want anybody to get that 21 impression. 22 THE WITNESS: Right, right. Depends on the 23 person. 24 THE COURT: But some people might say, well, 25 they didn't consider that female librarian, but they did VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 17 1 consider somebody else. So they looked at it and they 2 said that person can do a better job because of their 3 gender, maybe. 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. Depends upon the 5 person, whether it is male or female, just depends upon 6 their capabilities. 7 THE COURT: It does exist. 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh. 9 THE COURT: That's possible. Now, I'm going 10 to -- is it Mr. Gupta? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 12 THE COURT: Other types of prejudice? Where 13 are you from? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm from India. 15 THE COURT: You're from India? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 17 THE COURT: Nobody is ever prejudiced against 18 people who are not born in the United States, are they? 19 Sometimes they are. 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I hope not. 21 THE COURT: You hope not. Hopefully, not you. 22 But it can be national origin too, is that a fair one to 23 put in the group? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I would certainly like to 25 put that. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 18 1 THE COURT: Okay. National origin. All right. 2 We have got a good set of things people can be prejudice 3 about. 4 Now, I'm going to have you pass that back to 5 Ms. Vasser. She is right in front of you. 6 Ms. Vasser, we have got a good list of things 7 that you have to watch out what you want in jurors and 8 some things you don't want. You don't want people 9 prejudice, and we went through some things there. I want 10 you to do something. We have got five people over there. 11 We have got three people over there and two people over 12 there. One person out there is a defendant in this case. 13 Can you look out there and tell me which one it is? You 14 got the gentleman with the beard and the glasses on there 15 and the lady with -- got her hand on her -- all right -- 16 chin on her hand. Gentleman with the red tie over there, 17 the lady that's blonde, lady right there, and the fellow 18 with the dark hair and glasses and another kind of darker 19 red tie right there. Which one do you think is the 20 defendant? They all look eligible, don't they? I'm 21 kidding you. 22 MR. MURPHY: Judge, I was starting to get 23 worried because they're eyeballing me. 24 THE COURT: Okay. He kind of stood up and 25 threw you off there. He's still in the pool, we don't VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 19 1 want to leave him out. Who do you think the defendant is? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm going to say the lady 3 in the black suit. 4 THE COURT: Which one now? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Dark hair. 6 THE COURT: The blonde? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, not the blonde. 8 THE COURT: The brunette? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Brunette. 10 THE COURT: Brunette is the one. 11 Why do you pick her out? Usually what happens 12 is they pick out somebody who looks a little different. 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah. 14 THE COURT: That's the most common thing for 15 people to do. We always have that -- now, I probably 16 threw you off, because usually people pick out if there's 17 a guy with a beard, and Mr. Murphy stood up, they often 18 pick out -- 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He stood up, so I 20 eliminated him. 21 THE COURT: But if he had sat there -- often we 22 pick out somebody who looks a little different, and I'm 23 not saying you look that different, but somebody who looks 24 somewhat different, so we had, you know, two red ties -- 25 we had three red ties, put the ties together, maybe they VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 20 1 all look alike, I don't know. But you have a fellow with 2 a beard. All the men wore glasses, so that made it 3 harder, you know. You had a mustache and a beard, that 4 makes that kind of hard to pick out. You had somebody who 5 was a blonde lady, somebody who is -- so you went with the 6 brunette lady. 7 Okay. She is the IRS agent. She is the IRS 8 agent. We do this for a very specific purpose, and that 9 is we all also judge people often on how they look. 10 I'm going to hand that to Mr. White right next 11 to you. Mr. White, you and I don't have much hair, right? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's correct. 13 THE COURT: People make assumptions about 14 people who don't -- mostly good assumptions about people 15 who don't have much hair, I suppose. At least you and Mr. 16 Salaam and I all think the same on that. But they will 17 make assumptions about that, won't they? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Correct. 19 THE COURT: And that's just not fair. Is it? 20 It's not a fair way to proceed. And so what we have to do 21 is in order to get rid of prejudice, we have to stop 22 seeing that person as a person who has on, you know, a 23 black jacket, white -- kind of beige, that might be white, 24 I just can't see very well. You know, we have to not make 25 a judgment. Now, I asked Ms. Vasser to do that because VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 21 1 that's part of the illustration. She did exactly what I 2 wanted her to do, which is pick out somebody. In this 3 case, is it appropriate -- would it be unfair, though, to 4 judge anybody on how they appear? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 6 THE COURT: Okay. How do we avoid that, doing 7 that? Because the first thing we all do, we all know is 8 we look around and we see somebody and we start making 9 judgments about that person, often very unfairly. Usually 10 completely unfairly, but we do that. How do we avoid 11 doing that in this case? How do we avoid judging people 12 based on appearance? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: By listening to the facts 14 of the case. 15 THE COURT: That's exactly right, and you said 16 ability to assess facts earlier, which is exactly that. 17 We listen to the evidence. We listen to the facts, and we 18 put aside preconceived notions about people based on 19 appearance, based on, you know, hair style, based on 20 anything else, we put those all out of our mind. 21 Do you think, Mr. Spurlin, that that is 22 possible for people to do? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I don't think always. 24 THE COURT: It's not always? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 22 1 THE COURT: It's difficult? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 3 THE COURT: Have you found yourself on occasion 4 sort of having prejudged somebody and found out you were 5 just wrong? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: On occasion. 7 THE COURT: I mean -- 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I mean it's not often. I 9 have done it in the past. 10 THE COURT: Right. Sometimes you will think 11 somebody is a good guy, and they turn out not to be a good 12 guy. You think somebody is a bad guy, and it turns out 13 they're not a bad guy. 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 15 THE COURT: It's a natural thing for people to 16 assess things based on appearance, but in a case, in a 17 trial, if we always did that, who would always get off and 18 who would always get convicted? I'm going to ask Mr. 19 Salaam, who would always get off if we just went on 20 appearance and who would usually get convicted? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, the wrong person 22 would get convicted, and the right person would walk. 23 THE COURT: Right, exactly, because we would be 24 looking at people and just making a superficial 25 determination instead of looking hard at the evidence, and VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 23 1 we can all think about that that is just inherently unfair 2 in our society. So that's what we're going to have to 3 avoid today. 4 Now, I did mention -- and, Mr. Murphy, I'm now 5 going to let you -- I'm going to now let you introduce 6 yourself and who is with you, and I'm going to let counsel 7 for the defense introduce himself and those who are with 8 him, and you're going to know who the parties are. But 9 you're not supposed to judge them based on their 10 appearance. 11 MR. MURPHY: Thank you, Your Honor. My name is 12 Joe Murphy, ladies and gentlemen. I'm an assistant United 13 States attorney here in Memphis, Tennessee, and sitting 14 with me today will be Ms. Debbie White. She is an IRS 15 agent with the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS. 16 Thank you. 17 THE COURT: All right. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. 18 And, of course, they represent the United 19 States. 20 Yes, sir. 21 MR. BECRAFT: May it please the court, my name 22 is Larry Becraft. I'm an attorney that is here to 23 represent the defendant in this case. I also have a 24 friend of mine that is going to be helping me. He's a 25 lawyer. His name is Bob Bernhoft. This is the man right VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 24 1 here, and for those who didn't guess who is remaining, the 2 lady right here is the defendant. Her name is -- we call 3 her Vernie Kuglin. 4 THE COURT: And it is K-U-G-L-I-N? 5 MR. BECRAFT: That is correct, Your Honor. 6 THE COURT: So it is Ms. Kuglin. Well, 7 hopefully, that exercise was useful to all of you to go 8 through this process and say, you know, maybe we ought not 9 to judge a book by its cover, we ought to wait and see 10 what the content is in the case, and that's -- we usually 11 try to go through that. 12 Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to need to tell 13 you a little bit about the case, because the government is 14 always -- in these criminal cases is always the party that 15 goes first, and it is the government, and before we do 16 that, though, I'm going to go to Mr. Vedder, do you think 17 you should automatically believe the government because 18 they are the government? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 20 THE COURT: Okay. Now, do you have times in 21 your life where you have not agreed with the government on 22 things? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I spent 24 years in the 24 military, sir. 25 THE COURT: You always agreed with the VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 25 1 government, is that right? But now -- you're retired now, 2 right? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 4 THE COURT: So now you can disagree with them 5 if you want to. 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 7 THE COURT: All right. Would you hesitate to 8 disagree with the government if you thought that the 9 evidence, which is what we have been talking about all the 10 time, the way we have to decide this case, said that you 11 didn't believe the government theory? Now, it's not a 12 matter of personally -- the lawyers don't know anything 13 personally in the case, so it's not a matter of believing 14 or disbelieving one of the attorneys, but will you decide 15 this case solely on the evidence and not decide it for the 16 government just because it is the government? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Strictly on the evidence, 18 sir. 19 THE COURT: Right. And you see the importance, 20 everybody has got to be able to do that. 21 Now, hand that to Mr. Scott. Mr. Scott, have 22 you ever had a disagreement with anybody in government? 23 Maybe not. 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I worked 31 years for the 25 VA Hospital. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 26 1 THE COURT: For the VA Hospital? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 3 THE COURT: Are you retired now? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, on occasion, I kind 5 of had a small problem. 6 THE COURT: Okay. Are you retired -- you're 7 retired? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Because of that. 9 THE COURT: We can talk about it if we need to. 10 Does that mean that you're -- since you worked for the VA 11 for a long time, actually longer than Mr. Vedder was in -- 12 which branch of the service were you in, Navy, Mr. Vedder? 13 Which branch of the service were you in? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Army. 15 THE COURT: Army. Okay, Army. 16 And we have got the VA. Mr. Scott, are you 17 going to, again, just like Mr. Vedder, be able to decide 18 the case based on the evidence and not be inclined to just 19 agree with the government, which, of course, you worked 20 for the government also all these years? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I will be able to. 22 THE COURT: If the government does not prove 23 the case beyond a reasonable doubt, you understand that 24 you have to decide for the defendant? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: (Nods head up and down). VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 27 1 THE COURT: Okay. That's right. 2 All right. And then we go to Ms. Starnes. Ms. 3 Starnes, who do you work for? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Medical doctors. 5 THE COURT: Okay. Physicians. Which group? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Raleigh Cordova Medical 7 Group. 8 THE COURT: Okay. Well, do you have any 9 problem with the fact that you might have to disagree -- 10 well, you have no obligation to agree with the position of 11 the government, just because it is the government; does 12 that make sense to you? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 14 THE COURT: Okay. And if Mr. Murphy presents 15 proof beyond a reasonable doubt on the issues in this 16 case, then, of course, you have to find the defendant 17 guilty, but if they fail to do that, you have to find the 18 defendant not guilty. Is that -- is that something you 19 can live with? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 21 THE COURT: Okay. You now understand we're 22 going to decide this case solely on the case, not on those 23 other things we shouldn't consider, and we're going to be 24 that kind of juror that we have all outlined here today. 25 I'm going to hand it back to Mr. Smith. I'm VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 28 1 going to ask -- you said you need to be a good listener in 2 the case. Do you agree -- one thing we didn't talk about 3 is a person has to be very patient in deciding the case 4 because you have to wait until the end of all the 5 evidence. You can't decide the case as you go along. Can 6 you do that in this case? You have to wait until you hear 7 it all, and then you hear Mr. Murphy's final argument and 8 you hear Mr. Bernhoft's final argument, and then you get 9 my instructions on the law, and then you decide the case, 10 can you wait that long? You have got to wait a long time 11 in these cases. 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, Your Honor, you have 13 to. 14 THE COURT: Absolutely, because you don't know 15 all the evidence until you've weighed it and heard 16 everything. If you decide it based on the first witness, 17 well, that would just be fundamentally unfair. 18 All right. Well, I'm going to tell you a 19 little bit about the charges in the case, and then I'm 20 going to let the lawyers ask some questions in the matter. 21 I am going to -- anybody ever had a dispute with the IRS? 22 Or y'all just happily pay your taxes? All right. You 23 know, I do want you to tell me later on if you have had a 24 dispute with the Internal Revenue Service or something 25 like that, it's relevant. It doesn't mean that you can't VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 29 1 be a good juror, in fact, you might be a better juror for 2 it, but it's something we would want to know about. I'm 3 going to tell you a couple of things. There are -- there 4 is more than one count in this indictment and there's 5 going to be some critical language. I'm going to read the 6 indictment one time right now. I may refer back to it 7 later on and refer back to portions of the indictment; and 8 at the end of the case, you will get a copy of the 9 indictment, you'll get a verdict form, and you'll get a 10 written set of instructions as well as oral instructions 11 which I'm required to give you. 12 Now, the fact that somebody has been indicted 13 does not mean anything about their guilt or innocence. 14 It's simply a way of telling you what the charges are. If 15 we didn't have this mechanism, the defendant would have no 16 way to know how to prepare to confront the charges at 17 trial, so it's a matter of fairness to a defendant. It is 18 not -- and it's a matter of notice to you and me as to the 19 nature of the charges, but it is not evidence at all. 20 Now, is the fact that somebody has been 21 indicted, Mr. Smith, something that would cause you to 22 start to make up your mind -- and I think it's -- well, 23 Ms. Vickers, I'll ask you, is it something that would 24 cause you making up your mind, somebody has been indicted, 25 they must have done something wrong? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 30 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I think that's a natural 2 thing to -- if they're there, that possibly they have. 3 THE COURT: But you remember when -- it's 4 totally inappropriate. Does it seem also possible to go 5 back to neutral and say that's totally inappropriate to 6 give that any weight at all? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. And your last 8 question, let me say, even though I haven't had any 9 personal whatever with the IRS, but I have worked in an 10 accounting office 18 years for a CPA firm that had 11 interaction, and because of this, I know a lot of times 12 people get put in those situations and they're not guilty. 13 THE COURT: Right. And I assume -- I have 14 never worked in a CPA office, but I will accept your word 15 on that. 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah. 17 THE COURT: The point being, though, that 18 everybody starts out with a clean slate. Nobody has any 19 black marks on it, you don't get a black mark on it or a 20 negative mark on it for having been charged with an 21 indictment. You're entitled to a jury that will not start 22 out with preconceived notions about your guilt, or for 23 that matter, your innocence. Well, they have to have a 24 preconceived notion about your innocence, you're innocent 25 until proven guilty. They start out, this person is VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 31 1 innocent, and the government has to prove beyond a 2 reasonable doubt that they're guilty. 3 All right. Let me tell you -- I'm also going 4 to tell you that there are six charges in this case -- 5 counts, and the number of counts is also not important. 6 You can't say, well, had it been one, I wouldn't have been 7 bothered, but there's six. Otherwise, how would the 8 government always assure a conviction, Mr. Smith, if the 9 number of counts made any difference? They would just 10 charge with you a bunch of counts, wouldn't they? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 12 THE COURT: Right. And that would not be a 13 fair way for our system to proceed. So that -- we know 14 that on each count, a person is presumed innocent, and the 15 government has to prove that count, and the facts that 16 support that count beyond a reasonable doubt even. If 17 they prove another count beyond a reasonable doubt, that 18 still doesn't prove that particular point. So each one is 19 considered separately and independently. 20 Okay. Well, this is what the indictment says. 21 Count 1. That during the calendar year 1996, the 22 defendant, Vernice B. Kuglin. 23 MR. BECRAFT: Kuglin, Your Honor. 24 THE COURT: Kuglin. I'm going to try to get 25 that right. Ms. Kuglin had and received taxable income in VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 32 1 the sum of approximately $162,883.75, that well knowing 2 and believing the foregoing facts, the defendant on or 3 about April 15th of 1997, in the Western District of 4 Tennessee, did un-- did willfully attempt to evade and 5 defeat said income tax due and owing by her to the United 6 States of America for said calendar year by failing to 7 make an income tax return on or before April 15, 1997, as 8 required by law, to any proper officer of the Internal 9 Revenue Service and by failing to pay the Internal Revenue 10 Service said income tax, in violation of Title 26, United 11 States Code, Section 7201. 12 Count 2. That during the calendar year 1997, 13 the defendant, Vernice B. Kuglin, had and received taxable 14 income in the sum of approximately $147,999.60, that well 15 knowing and believing the foregoing facts, the defendant 16 on or about April 15, 1998, in the Western District of 17 Tennessee, did willfully attempt to evade and defeat the 18 said income tax due and owing by her to the United States 19 of America for said calendar year by failing to make an 20 income tax return on or before April 15, 1998, as required 21 by law, to any proper officer of the Internal Revenue 22 Service by failing to pay the Internal Revenue Service an 23 income tax, and by filing a false recall Form W-4 in 1997, 24 in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 25 7201. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 33 1 Count 3. That during the calendar year, 1998, 2 the defendant, Vernice B. Kuglin, had and received taxable 3 income in the sum of approximately $137,197.93, that well 4 knowing and believing the foregoing facts, the defendant 5 on or about April 15th of 1999, in the Western District of 6 Tennessee, did willfully attempt to evade and defeat the 7 said income tax due and owing by her to the United States 8 of America for said calendar year by failing to make an 9 income tax return on or before April 15, 1999, as required 10 by law, to any proper officer of the Internal Revenue 11 Service, by failing to pay the Internal Revenue Service 12 said income tax, and by filing a false W-4 -- Form W-4 in 13 1998, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, 14 Section 7201. 15 Count 4. That during the calendar year 1999, 16 the defendant, Vernice B. Kuglin, had and received taxable 17 income in the sum of approximately $146,571.66, that well 18 knowing and believing the foregoing facts, the defendant 19 on or about April 15, 2000, in the Western District of 20 Tennessee, did willfully attempt to evade and defeat the 21 said income tax due and owing by her to the United States 22 of America for said calendar year by failing to make an 23 income tax return on or before April 17, 2000, as required 24 by law, to any proper officer of the Internal Revenue 25 Service, by failing to pay the Internal Revenue Service VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 34 1 said income tax, and by filing a false Form W-4 in 1999, 2 in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 3 7201. 4 Count 5. That during the calendar 2000, the 5 defendant, Vernice B. Kuglin, had and received taxable 6 income in the sum of approximately $164,224.28, that well 7 knowing and believing the foregoing facts, the defendant 8 on or about April 15, of 2000, in the Western District of 9 Tennessee, did willfully attempt to evade and defeat the 10 said income tax due and owing by her to the United States 11 of America for said calendar year by failing to make an 12 income tax return on or before April 16, 2001, as required 13 by law, to any proper officer of the Internal Revenue 14 Service, by failing to pay the Internal Revenue Service 15 said income tax and by filing a false Form W-4 in 2000, in 16 violation of Title 26, United States Code, section 7201. 17 Count 6. That during the calendar year 2001, 18 the defendant, Vernice B. Kuglin, had and received taxable 19 income in the sum of approximately $161,189.07, that well 20 knowing and believing the foregoing facts, the defendant 21 on or about April 15th of 2002, in the Western District of 22 Tennessee, did willfully attempt to evade and defeat the 23 said income tax due and owing by her to the United States 24 of America for said calendar year by failing to make an 25 income tax return on or before April 15, 2002, as required VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 35 1 by law, to any proper officer of the Internal Revenue 2 Service by failing to pay the Internal Revenue Service 3 said income tax and by filing a false Form W-4 in 2001, in 4 violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7201. 5 Well, six counts, basically, saying pretty much 6 the same thing, not exactly the same thing each time. 7 Sometimes something involving a Form W-4, sometimes not, 8 for the years '96, '97, '98, '99, 2000, 2001. 9 Well, now, you all agreed that you wouldn't 10 decide the case without hearing the evidence, and I just 11 read you the indictment and now you're sitting there 12 thinking some things, right? And the important thing to 13 remember about an indictment is that it is just a charge. 14 It's awfully hard to do, because the inclination of every 15 human being is to do what? Let's see, I'm going to 16 mispronounce it, Mr. Stovall -- it's Jeffrey? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Stovall. 18 THE COURT: I'm sorry, Mr. Stovall. What's the 19 natural inclination after hearing six somewhat repetitive 20 charges for different years on a failure to file income 21 tax return case -- I'm generally characterizing it that 22 way, what is the natural inclination for most people to 23 do? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Prejudge. 25 THE COURT: Say, my goodness, you know -- and VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 36 1 so, I'm going to go to your colleague right next to you, 2 our senior member of the panel, Mr. Viverette, and how do 3 you not prejudge these charges? How do you avoid -- is it 4 hard to do, hard not to prejudge? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. Yes, it is. 6 THE COURT: It's hard. 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: With the amount of charges, 8 of course. 9 THE COURT: It's a hard thing to do. You know, 10 if it is one charge, you sort of feel one way. I warned 11 you about that, you know, one easier to deal with, six a 12 little harder, and yet that is why it is so important. So 13 how are we going to overcome this sort of hole that, you 14 know, I dug? I got you out of the hole and we all started 15 out nice and even, and then I read you the indictment, how 16 do we get out of that hole and get back to where we're 17 supposed to be, which is requiring the government to prove 18 its case beyond a reasonable doubt and giving the 19 defendant the presumption of innocence that the law 20 requires, how do we do that? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Listen to the evidence and 22 try to judge, you know, from the evidence. 23 THE COURT: I mean that's a great answer. 24 That's the answer. I mean you just say, hey, I heard 25 something, and it's not evidence. I heard something, and VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 37 1 it's not evidence, and you get your antenna tuned up 2 because you know what you're going to have to listen for, 3 but you haven't heard any evidence yet. Exactly. 4 Exactly. Do you think people can really do that, Ms. 5 Saul? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I think that they can. In 7 some cases, it might be a little difficult, but I think 8 that they could if they just let -- left their emotions 9 out and just weighed the evidence and the facts of the 10 case to seek the truth and come to a good conclusion. 11 THE COURT: I think you're right, I think it is 12 a little -- I think it's fairly difficult, but we got to 13 do it, we got to do it in this case. 14 Mr. Gupta, can you do that in this case, can 15 you start out on an even -- you know, this person is 16 presumed innocent, they're innocent, there's nothing on 17 that slate? I don't have any bad marks written on there, 18 can you do that in this case? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 20 THE COURT: Okay. How did you go through that 21 process of eliminating hearing that indictment, sort of 22 the effect of hearing charges, how do you deal with that? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, basically, I believe 24 that the defendant is going to try to present a case from 25 his opinion exactly all the details, whatever it is, and VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 38 1 the facts and whatnot, and hopefully -- 2 THE COURT: I'm sorry, go ahead. 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: And, hopefully -- we have 4 to hear all those facts and keep on hearing those and no 5 judgment until the case -- all the facts are heard. 6 THE COURT: Exactly. Now, you have raised a 7 really important point, and I'm glad you did, because the 8 interesting thing about our system, and it's different 9 from many systems, it is different from the Belgium system 10 and the French system and parts of the German system, it 11 depends on what system you're in, is that the defendant 12 actually never has to present anything at all. The 13 government always has the burden of proof, and while there 14 may be things that they present, there may not be things 15 that they present, the government always has the burden of 16 proving each count beyond a reasonable doubt. So we have 17 got to be a little careful there. I'm going to fine tune 18 your response just a little and say that every person is 19 entitled to be represented. The defendant is certainly 20 represented in the case, but she is not required to put 21 any proof on, is that -- is that going to make it 22 difficult for you, Ms. Vasser, in terms of how you listen 23 to the case? She is right in front of you. She is right 24 there in front of you. The fact that you know that she is 25 not obligated to present any proof. Now, they may -- they VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 39 1 may tell you they will, but they are never obligated to, 2 is it still possible for you to keep that frame of mind, 3 innocent until proven guilty -- 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 5 THE COURT: -- knowing that? Does it make 6 sense that we don't require defendants to -- we don't 7 require them to testify or give any evidence at all, does 8 that make sense? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, it does. 10 THE COURT: Because it would be a very coercive 11 system. The system would be very coercive if we could 12 make people get up there and testify, it would take the 13 burden partly away from the government, and that would be 14 wrong. I mean the government has the burden no matter how 15 we look at it, they have the burden of proof. 16 I have done a couple of things. We've gone 17 through what a juror needs to be. I'm going to run down 18 the rest of the list, and make sure everybody -- and then 19 I'm going to tell the schedule. I'm going to see if 20 anybody has got a problem with the schedule. This case is 21 going to take a few days to try. Whether it is three days 22 or four days or five days, it's going to be at least in 23 that range. Never can tell for sure. These are like 24 medical procedures, you know, if they start, they just go 25 until they're over, you can't do anything about shortening VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 40 1 them up. 2 But let's go to Mr. White, Mr. White, having 3 heard everything that you have heard, now do you think you 4 can be a fair and impartial juror in this case and try 5 this case solely on the evidence, or is there something 6 you need to tell me about now either now or in person at 7 the side bar about why you might not be able to do that? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I believe I can be fair and 9 impartial in this case. 10 THE COURT: All right. And let's ask Mr. 11 Spurlin, can you be fair and impartial in this case, try 12 the case as we've talked about how to try it? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 14 THE COURT: And Mr. Salaam, can you do that? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I can. 16 THE COURT: Mr. Vedder, can do you that? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 18 THE COURT: Mr. Scott, can you do that? You 19 want to talk to me at side bar? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Kind of. 21 THE COURT: I can tell that. We'll talk up 22 here in just a second. 23 Let me ask Ms. Starnes, Ms. Starnes, can do you 24 that in this case? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 41 1 THE COURT: And, Mr. Smith, can you do that? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I could. 3 THE COURT: Ms. Vickers, can you do that? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 5 THE COURT: And, Mr. Smith, can you do that? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 7 THE COURT: And, Mr. Stovall, anything you need 8 to talk to me about or can you do that? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 10 THE COURT: Mr. Viverrette, can you do that? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 12 THE COURT: And I think we have asked Ms. Saul, 13 I will ask you again, can you do that? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 15 THE COURT: And I'm going to ask Mr. Gupta 16 again just to make sure we have got everybody. 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I can do that. 18 THE COURT: All right. Let me tell you a 19 couple of things, and then I'm going to talk briefly with 20 Mr. Scott at the side bar. The case will be tried on a 21 schedule, we will usually start in here about 9:00 22 o'clock. It may be 9:30, it depends on the schedule for 23 each morning. We usually have some things earlier, but as 24 the case starts, we try to condense them. On Monday, 25 Wednesday, Friday, we take a longer lunch break, it is VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 42 1 usually from 12:30 until 2:00. That won't seem -- once 2 you have taken that long lunch break, you will appreciate 3 that that is a good break for us, but then on Tuesday, 4 Thursday, we take a short lunch break, it is an hour lunch 5 break. It is actually a pretty good schedule, it's pretty 6 tight. We will stay in this case until a little after 7 5:00 each day. We won't stay real late. This is not -- 8 just like, frankly, all your comments were really good, 9 and attentiveness and being able to focus on the case are 10 the type of things that require we not keep you just for 11 hours and hours. You have to be able to have a reasonable 12 day, and we recognize that, so that's what we'll do. I 13 expect the case to be a three to five-day case, I could be 14 wrong. It could be a two-day case, which isn't likely, 15 but it could also be a six-day case, which probably isn't 16 likely either, but I can't tell you in advance. So you 17 have to be available for that period of time. This is 18 Monday, we will go through Friday, and we can be back next 19 Monday, if we need to. That's not a problem. I expect 20 the proof will probably be over in four days, though, that 21 would be my absolute guess. I mean by Thursday. Mr. 22 Murphy, the government will probably end a little before 23 that? 24 MR. MURPHY: Judge, I anticipate that. 25 THE COURT: We never ask the defense how long VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 43 1 the proof is going to be, you know, because they're not 2 required to put any proof on, because it's not fair to 3 them. If you want to tell us, it's okay, but we don't 4 really ask. 5 MR. BECRAFT: Your Honor, I am going to try to 6 finish, if Mr. Murphy finishes Tuesday afternoon or 7 Wednesday morning, I hope to have the case concluded, at 8 latest, by noon on Thursday, the proof. 9 THE COURT: So that's going to be our 10 objective. That's good. We all kind of know where we are 11 on the case. The reason I'm telling you those things is 12 that if you have got a nonrefundable trip and you're 13 supposed to be on vacation next Monday, it's not the case 14 for you. You need to be available that long, probably 15 won't be that long, but if you have got a commitment that 16 you have to meet, then this is not the case for you. I 17 think they have given you the best estimate. That's the 18 best they can do. Anybody who has a problem on the 19 schedule? 20 Okay. Well, I'm going to have -- I'm going 21 to -- Mr. Scott will be our illustration about coming to 22 the side bar. I'm going to have you come around to side 23 bar. If you can just walk in front, it's fine. And we 24 hit some white noise then, so that -- let you have a 25 private conversation at the side. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 44 1 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 2 bench.) 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: See, right now, I'm in 4 dispute with Internal Revenue, plus my wife is an 5 employee, and she used to work as Internal Revenue 6 employee. 7 THE COURT: You're in dispute with the IRS? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, kind of. I'm paying 9 them back. But, see, my wife, she works for IRS. 10 THE COURT: Do you think you should not a juror 11 in this case because of that? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, it would kind of -- 13 you know. 14 THE COURT: Make you feel -- 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Feel a little 16 uncomfortable. 17 THE COURT: Any objection to allowing Mr. Scott 18 to be excused? 19 MR. MURPHY: Judge, I don't have any. 20 MR. BECRAFT: No. 21 THE COURT: We're going to let you be excused. 22 Thanks for coming and telling me about it. Thank you. 23 (The following proceedings were had in open 24 court.) 25 THE COURT: We're going to let Mr. Scott be VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 45 1 excused, and we will draw another name. Yes, sir. 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Can I have -- because I 3 have a medical condition, can I have some question that we 4 ask? 5 THE COURT: Sure. Why don't you -- you want to 6 talk to me at side bar or you want to tell me -- you can 7 come around to side bar. 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Can I come around to side 9 bar? 10 THE COURT: Yes. We're going to call that 11 other name right now so we can fill that seat so the 12 lawyers will know who will be seat six. 13 THE CLERK: Marlow Smith. 14 THE COURT: Yes, sir, if you will come around 15 over here. 16 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 17 bench.) 18 THE COURT: Mr. Gupta, yes, sir. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm a diabetic patient, 20 insulin dependent. Sometimes things can happen without my 21 control. I am not sure when the things will be happening. 22 I take shots. 23 THE COURT: Let me ask this. 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. 25 THE COURT: How often do you take a shot? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 46 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: In the a.m., in the 2 afternoon, and in the p.m., three times. 3 THE COURT: Okay. And did you bring insulin 4 with you today? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have not brought insulin 6 with me today, I did not think that I was going to need it 7 for the lunch time today because sometimes I can manage 8 without that. 9 THE COURT: Okay. Will you bring insulin just 10 in case you need it? We will always take a -- 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah. 12 THE COURT: You administer your own shot? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I do. 14 THE COURT: Okay. How are you feeling today? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Fine. 16 THE COURT: Okay. We have a general policy 17 that if somebody has a condition that can be managed, we 18 do not want to exclude them from the panel. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I see. 20 THE COURT: If you think it's -- that you 21 can't -- cannot serve, if you think it's going to be a 22 problem, then I would want you to tell me, but we are 23 going to try to help you out if there is any -- 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I will prefer because it's 25 just developed that condition the last few months, six VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 47 1 months, but I've been a diabetic for the last 25 years. I 2 can handle it, don't get me wrong, but I may not be sure, 3 and I would just feel much comfortable if I don't have to 4 do that. 5 THE COURT: If you don't have to serve on the 6 jury at this time? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm going to be honest with 8 you. 9 THE COURT: Okay. You do not use the insulin 10 pump, but you use the shots? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I use the shots. 12 THE COURT: Mr. Murphy, I'm inclined if 13 somebody thinks it's a problem -- 14 MR. MURPHY: Judge, I have no objection. 15 MR. BECRAFT: None, Your Honor. 16 THE COURT: We ought to let you be excused. I 17 understand it has gotten a little more difficult lately? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 19 THE COURT: Is that right? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 21 THE COURT: We're going to let you be excused. 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Thank you very much. 23 (The following proceedings were had in open 24 court.) 25 THE COURT: We're going to allow Mr. Gupta to VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 48 1 be excused. We will seat somebody else in seat number 2 eight. 3 THE CLERK: Barbara Snodgrass. 4 THE COURT: Mr. Smith, how are you? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Doing fine. 6 THE COURT: Been in any big fights with the 7 IRS? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 9 THE COURT: All right. 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Don't make enough money. 11 THE COURT: Well, I think a lot of -- we all 12 feel that way sometimes. Let me ask this -- you raise a 13 great point, though, you really do. We talked about ways 14 people can discriminate against folks. We talked about 15 people of different gender, we talked about appearance 16 because that was really important and a really obvious 17 thing to talk about. We talked about -- let's see, Mr. 18 Stovall mentioned race and religion, Mr. Viverette 19 mentioned age, Ms. Saul, gender, Mr. Gupta had mentioned 20 national origin, different things. Do you think people 21 can treat people differently because of their economic 22 status? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm sure it does happen. 24 THE COURT: Would that be right in a court of 25 law for somebody to be treated differently because of VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 49 1 their economic status? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It's not right anywhere. 3 THE COURT: It's not. And that can be both -- 4 that can be -- you think it can apply to both people who 5 make more money and people who make less money? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm sure it can. 7 THE COURT: It could be? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: And I do in my life. 9 THE COURT: Maybe I didn't say that very well. 10 Would it be right to treat -- to hold the government to a 11 lower standard in this case for Ms. Kuglin because she has 12 got some fairly large -- pretty large numbers associated 13 with those income years, would that be wrong just to say, 14 well, she made a bunch of money, you know, she must have 15 done wrong, would that be fair? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, Huh-uh. 17 THE COURT: Okay. And that's the same kind of 18 preconceived notion, the idea that we're always concerned 19 about is -- if Bill Gates was here and his income, I don't 20 know what he makes, you know, Bill Gates was here and -- I 21 don't know what he makes, I have no idea, and he made a 22 billion dollars, he makes a lot of money, I don't know 23 what he makes, he makes enough money to last us for 24 awhile, would it be fair to convict him just because he 25 made a billion dollars? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 50 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, it wouldn't. 2 THE COURT: Right. And that is an important 3 concept here, just -- it's the same kind of preconceived 4 notion or anything else. The government's burden doesn't 5 change because of your income level. In other words, if 6 you make $50,000, if you make -- you know, $24,000, you 7 have to pay income tax just like everybody else, you know. 8 In fact, I can't remember the scale, but it varies, it 9 varies a good bit. If you make $50,000, you have to pay 10 income tax, if you make a hundred thousand dollars, you 11 have to pay income tax. And the obligation to file that 12 tax return doesn't change because of your income. I'm 13 saying this in general, I know that there may be some 14 exceptions there, but as a general proposition, you got to 15 file. Anybody -- you know, I'm not going to ask everybody 16 now, I'm going to tell you, don't raise your hand, but in 17 the last five years, have each of you filed an income tax 18 return each year? I'm not going to ask too many questions 19 because somebody may not be old enough to have paid income 20 taxes in a couple of those years, and there's some income 21 limits on that too, but most everybody up there has filed 22 an income tax return, at least one in the last couple of 23 years. Now, everybody on the -- I can't remember if 24 you're a student if you have to file one or not. Do you 25 have to file one if you're a student, Mr. Murphy? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 51 1 MR. MURPHY: Judge, it would depend on your 2 income. 3 THE COURT: It would depend on your income. 4 But by and large, most everybody up there has probably 5 filed an income tax return. So anybody got to rule 6 against the defendant because she looks like she made over 7 a hundred thousand dollars each year? 8 Okay. What about that, Ms. Vasser, you going 9 to rule against her -- you say, well, she must be guilty, 10 they say she made over a hundred thousand dollars each 11 year. We will pass it down to Ms. Vasser. 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 13 THE COURT: Okay. And that's important. And, 14 Mr. White, are you going to rule against her just because 15 she seems to have a pretty good size number beside her 16 name? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir, it should not make 18 a difference. 19 THE COURT: It really shouldn't, that's not 20 what the government is trying to prove there. They're 21 going to have to prove some numbers here, but that's not 22 the key thing. 23 What about that, Mr. Spurlin, are you going to 24 say, well, you know, it would be one thing if she made -- 25 I don't know, if she had -- if she was supposed to file an VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 52 1 income tax return, but her income had been $18,000, but 2 I'm going to treat her differently because I believe her 3 income was in excess of a hundred thousand dollars, would 4 that be wrong? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: To treat her different, 6 yes, it would be wrong. 7 THE COURT: It would be wrong, because this 8 otherwise -- Mr. Murphy, this is basically a failure to 9 file case, I don't want to misstate it. 10 MR. MURPHY: Well, it is an evasion case, Your 11 Honor. 12 THE COURT: It's an evasion. 13 MR. MURPHY: And as part of that scheme, we're 14 alleging failure to file and false W-4. 15 THE COURT: They're saying she knew she was 16 supposed to file and she didn't file, and she did some 17 things on some occasions to not file, to avoid it. But we 18 can't just look at the number and reach a conclusion. Any 19 problem with that, Mr. Salaam? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. This is an evasion 21 case under 7201, so it doesn't have anything to do with 22 the amount, it's a legitimacy of an evasion. 23 THE COURT: Boy, you have got it down, thank 24 you. We just got to hear the proof on that. 25 Mr. Vedder, can you -- are you going to be VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 53 1 influenced by that number? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. Numbers don't make any 3 difference, sir. 4 THE COURT: Okay. We're going to look at the 5 actual proof on the issues that are going to be before the 6 court. 7 We have already asked Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith, 8 what do you do? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right now, I'm a golf pro? 10 THE COURT: You're a golf pro? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, ma'am -- yes, sir. 12 THE COURT: What happened to the golf course 13 you usually work with the storm? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, only one limb fell 15 off of one tree. 16 THE COURT: Where you are a golf pro? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Southaven Golf Center. 18 THE COURT: Okay. You were lucky, you were 19 lucky. 20 Ms. Starnes, is that number going to be 21 something that's going to overwhelm your ability to decide 22 the issues that are really going to be before us, the 23 evasion question? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 25 THE COURT: Mr. Smith, are you going to be able VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 54 1 to treat -- you know, we take an oath, a lot of us do, to 2 treat the wealthy -- the rich and poor alike is what it 3 says on a lot of these things, and I don't know if the 4 plaintiff will be offended if we said rich, because it's a 5 very relative thing, but can we treat everybody the same 6 in this case and decide the issues in this case 7 irrespective of the numbers involved, pretty much? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I could, Your Honor. 9 It will be based on the evidence. 10 THE COURT: All right. Ms. Vickers, is that 11 okay with you? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's fine. It's not 13 about the money, but the evasion. 14 THE COURT: And, Mr. Smith, is that okay with 15 you? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 17 THE COURT: And Mr. Stovall? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 19 THE COURT: And Mr. Viverette? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I agree it's the evasion 21 for not filing taxes. 22 THE COURT: Exactly. And Ms. Saul? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 24 THE COURT: Okay. You final -- we have got 25 down to our new juror, now, it's Ms. Snodgrass, is that VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 55 1 right? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 3 THE COURT: How are you today? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm fine, thank you. 5 THE COURT: What do you do? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Flight attendant, and I 7 also run an animal rescue organization. 8 THE COURT: What kind of animals? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Dogs and case. 10 THE COURT: Dogs and cats. There's one that 11 just does dogs. Is it Mews? What does Mews do? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: House of Mews does cats. 13 THE COURT: They do cats? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh. 15 THE COURT: But you do dogs and cats? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: We do dogs and cats. 17 THE COURT: Which -- where? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Here in Memphis. 19 THE COURT: On Central? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, we do it out of our 21 homes. We have foster homes. People who will take them 22 into their homes and keep them. 23 THE COURT: Okay. All right. Well, you've 24 heard what everybody said about qualities of a good juror? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I have. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 56 1 THE COURT: Long list there. Did you agree 2 with those? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I did. 4 THE COURT: Okay. And what about the prejudice 5 questions and prejudging questions, any problem with the 6 fact that we cannot prejudge the case, any problem with 7 those? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I don't have a problem with 9 that, no. 10 THE COURT: Can you give the defendant the 11 presumption of innocence that the law requires? And you 12 heard me read the charges, so that was one of the things 13 we went through this process about. Can you give the 14 defendant the presumption of innocence that the law 15 requires? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I feel the government is 17 going to have to show the reason, so, yes. 18 THE COURT: But it's a question of being able 19 to give somebody that blank slate. 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh. 21 THE COURT: Can she really start out with a 22 blank slate with nothing written on it, even though we 23 have got those charges there, nothing written, no black 24 marks, anything like that? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 57 1 THE COURT: Okay. Mr. Murphy -- and I do have 2 a bunch of other things, but I'm going to let you go 3 ahead. 4 MR. MURPHY: Yes, sir, Your Honor. 5 How are you, ladies and gentlemen, doing today? 6 My name is Joe Murphy, and I'm a prosecutor in the 7 U. S. Attorney's office here in Memphis, and I have got 8 some questions that I would -- or some things that I would 9 like to talk with you about before we begin. 10 Now, this is an income tax evasion case, and if 11 I didn't stand up here and say a lot of people have strong 12 feelings about the IRS and the income tax laws, I would be 13 lying to you. 14 Now, has anybody on the panel had any problems 15 with the IRS? Have you had any audits or anything like 16 that? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I was audited a number of 18 years ago. 19 MR. MURPHY: All right. As a result of that, 20 do you have any negative feelings about the IRS? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 22 MR. MURPHY: Okay. But you think you were 23 treated fairly throughout the audit process? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 25 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Anybody else? Yes, sir. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 58 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: We were audited a few years 2 ago also. 3 MR. MURPHY: Okay. And how do you feel about 4 the audit? Do you think you were treated fairly or 5 unfairly? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, after they, you know, 7 checked it over and so forth, they proved that, you know, 8 we had to pay, in other words. 9 MR. MURPHY: So you had to pay some extra tax? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's right. 11 MR. MURPHY: Do you think the IRS treated you 12 fairly? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I suppose so. You know, 14 the change each year, you know, there are certain changes, 15 so forth, but certain things, you know, were deductible, 16 you couldn't deduct it, so it's kind of hard to say, you 17 know, because of the changes, you know, they steady 18 changing what you could deduct. 19 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Can you -- if -- if you end 20 up on the jury in this case, can you put that as -- any 21 feelings you might have as a result of that audit to the 22 side and decide the case based on the facts and the law 23 that the judge gives you? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'll do my best. 25 MR. MURPHY: Okay. But do you think you could? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 59 1 Can you take an oath and swear that you can do it? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I believe so. 3 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Now, that brings us to an 4 important point. Judge McCalla in this case will instruct 5 you, ladies and gentlemen, if you end up on the jury what 6 the law is and what law you have to apply, and he'll 7 define what the crime of income tax evasion is, that sort 8 of thing. Now, does -- and he'll instruct you that you 9 have to apply his law whether you like it or not. Now, 10 does anybody have a problem with that? Do you think you 11 can apply the law whether you agree with it or not? Does 12 anybody have a problem with that? I know it is Monday 13 morning, nobody is talking. Not getting much of a 14 response, but I'm going to take it to mean that nobody has 15 a problem with that if you aren't raising your hands. 16 Okay. Let me say a word about what we're 17 doing. In voir dire, I only know this because the judge 18 told me this, it is old French for speak the truth, and 19 what we're trying to do here -- we're not trying to get a 20 government jury or a defense jury, we're trying to get a 21 fair jury. We're trying to get a jury that has no 22 preconceived notions that are going to affect the way they 23 control the case, and that's why we're asking the 24 questions we do. Do any of you ladies and gentlemen know 25 any of the parties that are seated here before you here VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 60 1 today? 2 THE JURY: No. 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: She looks familiar. Are 4 you perhaps a real estate agent? 5 THE COURT: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: She looks familiar. I just 7 asked if she was a real estate agent. 8 THE COURT: Not a real estate agent. 9 MR. BECRAFT: No, Your Honor, probably Mr. 10 Murphy is probably going to ask, but I think it is an 11 important question to ask, she does work. She is a FedEx 12 pilot, Your Honor. 13 THE COURT: Okay. I think that takes real 14 estate agent part out, doesn't it? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm the director of 16 operations at the airport, so perhaps -- 17 THE COURT: Do you recognize -- 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I may have recognized the 19 face, but I don't know the lady individually. 20 THE COURT: I will let Mr. Murphy ask a couple 21 of more questions about that. 22 MR. MURPHY: Now, the fact that you are 23 operations director at the airport, and the proof may 24 establish that the defendant, Ms. Kuglin, is a FedEx 25 employee, is that going to cause you any problems, are you VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 61 1 going to be worried about FedEx being mad at you no matter 2 how you decide the case? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 4 MR. MURPHY: Now, Ms. Vasser, do you also work 5 for FedEx? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I do. 7 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Is it going to cause you a 8 problem if there's another FedEx employee here? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 10 MR. MURPHY: It's not -- it's not going to 11 influence the way you decide the case? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 13 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Because you understand 14 you're going to have to decide the case on the facts -- 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 16 MR. MURPHY: -- that you hear from the witness 17 stand and the law that the judge gives you? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 19 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Thank you. Now, do any of 20 you ladies and gentlemen know anything about this case? 21 Has anybody talked the case over with you? Have you heard 22 anything about it from any friends at church, anything 23 like that? 24 Now, does everybody understand that the 25 indictment is just a way to bring this proceeding about, VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 62 1 that it's not proof of guilt? Does everybody understand 2 that? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 4 MR. MURPHY: Does everybody understand that Ms. 5 Kuglin, as she sits before you today, is presumed to be 6 innocent, do you understand that? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 8 MR. MURPHY: Okay. And do you also understand 9 that the government has the obligation of coming forward 10 and proving Ms. Kuglin guilty as charged in the indictment 11 beyond a reasonable doubt, does everybody understand that? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 13 MR. MURPHY: Does anybody think that the 14 government should be held to a lesser standard of proof? 15 THE JURY: No. 16 MR. MURPHY: By the same token, does anybody 17 think that the government ought to be held to a higher 18 standard of proof? Do you think we ought to have to prove 19 it beyond any doubt? You think we should have to prove it 20 beyond any doubt? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Beyond a shadow of a doubt. 22 MR. MURPHY: Now, the judge is going to 23 instruct you that the burden of proof in the case is 24 beyond a reasonable doubt, which is not beyond a shadow of 25 a doubt; is that going to be a problem? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 63 1 THE COURT: One reason for that is there can 2 always be an unreasonable doubt. I mean is Elvis dead? I 3 mean who thinks Elvis is not dead? Elvis is alive. But 4 there are people who will believe that Elvis is -- and I 5 will tell you, my wife was a resident, Elvis is dead, 6 folks, I hate to tell you, you know, he's dead. There are 7 things that people have unreasonable doubts about. We 8 might wish that it wasn't the way it is in the case of 9 somebody like Mr. Presley, but it's not a reasonable 10 doubt. It's not based on reason and common sense. It's 11 really based upon emotion, usually. So beyond a shadow of 12 a doubt is not the standard. You know, that's -- you 13 know, can I prove to you -- I can probably prove to you 14 beyond a shadow of a doubt that Elvis is dead because 15 there's some physical evidence of his not being alive, but 16 for some things we can never prove it beyond all doubt, 17 it's just not possible. 18 I'm sorry, go ahead, Mr. Murphy. 19 MR. MURPHY: Thank you, Judge. 20 But do you understand what the judge is 21 saying -- 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 23 MR. MURPHY: -- beyond a reasonable doubt is 24 the standard that you're going to have to decide the case 25 on, okay? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 64 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 2 MR. MURPHY: Can everybody give a fair trial to 3 both sides? Can everybody be fair to the defendant? Can 4 everybody be fair to the government? 5 THE JURY: Yes. 6 MR. MURPHY: As usual, ladies and gentlemen, 7 I'm having trouble reading my own writing. 8 Do any of you, ladies and gentlemen, have any 9 family or friends that are involved in law enforcement, 10 work for the Sheriff's Department or federal agents, work 11 for the police department? Yes, sir. 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: As part of my job, I'm a 13 police officer. 14 MR. MURPHY: You're a police officer at the 15 airport? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 17 MR. MURPHY: Are you a member of the Airport 18 Authority? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I am. 20 MR. MURPHY: Police department? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. I'm the director of 22 operations in public safety, which I have responsibility 23 for the police department. 24 MR. MURPHY: So you operate like the police 25 chief out there? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 65 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: The police chief reports to 2 me, yes. 3 MR. MURPHY: Anybody else? Any family members, 4 friends? Does anybody have any family members or friends 5 that work for the IRS? 6 Okay. Nobody will fess up to it, okay. 7 Yes, sir. 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have a son that works for 9 the IRS. 10 MR. MURPHY: You have a son that works -- 11 THE COURT: We're going to pass the mic back. 12 One reason we pass the mic is that it goes through our 13 system here, and actually you folks back there can hear it 14 when we're speaking in the mic, can't you? And when we 15 don't speak into the mic, you can't hear. And they need 16 to be able to hear our answers, so just be sure that you 17 speak into that mic. 18 Have you got -- 19 MR. MURPHY: Well, it wasn't working. 20 THE COURT: Well, you just keep your voice up, 21 and you usually can be heard. If you can't hear Mr. 22 Murphy, let me know too. 23 MR. MURPHY: That's what my kids say anyway. 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, I have a son that 25 works for the IRS. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 66 1 MR. MURPHY: And what does he do at the IRS? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He work, you know, with 3 tax -- with the tax, you know, examiner, I believe that's 4 the title. 5 MR. MURPHY: So he examines people's income 6 taxes? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: If I'm not mistaken, yes. 8 MR. MURPHY: Now, the fact that your son works 9 for the IRS, is that going to cause you any problems? Is 10 it going to make it harder for you to be fair to the 11 defendant? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 13 MR. MURPHY: Is it going to make it harder for 14 you to be fair to the government? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Loaded question. 16 MR. MURPHY: I believe this gentleman down 17 here, yes, sir. 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I had friends some years 19 ago that were criminal investigators with the IRS. 20 MR. MURPHY: Is that going to cause you a 21 problem? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, it's not. 23 MR. MURPHY: If you were to vote not guilty in 24 this case, would that embarrass you with those friends? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I haven't even seen them in VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 67 1 the last 15 years, they have moved away. 2 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Thank you. 3 Is any -- are any of you, ladies and gentlemen, 4 employed by the federal government? 5 Yes, ma'am. 6 COURT SECURITY OFFICER: Pass the mic down. 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I work for USDA, the U. S. 8 Department of Agriculture. 9 MR. MURPHY: How long? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: For 26 years. 11 MR. MURPHY: What part of USDA? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Cotton, cotton program. 13 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Do you work at the classing 14 office? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, uh-huh. 16 MR. MURPHY: The fact that the federal 17 government is bringing this case, is that going to cause 18 you any problems? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 20 MR. MURPHY: Are you going to feel like you 21 have to vote guilty? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 23 MR. MURPHY: And you can be fair to the 24 defendant? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 68 1 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Thank you, ma'am. 2 Have any of you, ladies and gentlemen, ever 3 served on a jury in a civil case? If you have, raise your 4 hands. 5 Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, do you understand 6 that there's six separate counts in this indictment? This 7 indictment charges six distinct crimes and that you're 8 going to be required to render a verdict as to each count 9 of the indictment. Does anybody have a problem with that? 10 Okay. And as the judge said, the number of charges 11 doesn't make a person guilty, everybody understands that? 12 Okay. Does anybody on the jury -- on the jury 13 panel, do you have a belief that you shouldn't be required 14 to pay taxes? That's different than you don't like paying 15 them, don't enjoy it. Do you think that tax laws are 16 unconstitutional or improper, or does anybody have 17 feelings like that? Okay. Does anybody have a problem 18 with the fact that some violations of the tax laws may be 19 criminal violations? You know, it's kind of like in drug 20 cases, you have some jurors sometimes that think marijuana 21 ought to be legalized and don't approve of prosecutions of 22 marijuana distributors, anybody feel like that, that the 23 tax laws -- that criminal charges shouldn't be brought for 24 tax violations? Nobody is saying anything. 25 Yes, sir. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 69 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have a feeling that our 2 tax laws are set up more for the rich folks instead of the 3 poor folks, being one of the poorer ones. 4 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Now, you understand that 5 the judge is going to instruct you what the law is in the 6 case, and you will have to follow that law without 7 consideration of that feeling; do you understand that? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 9 THE COURT: Okay. Now, does that cause you a 10 problem? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Because that has nothing to 12 do with a defendant, because that is our law per se. 13 MR. MURPHY: There you go. Would you speak 14 into the microphone, sir? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I said that has nothing to 16 do with a defendant, that's just the way our system works. 17 MR. MURPHY: Okay. 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: We don't have a perfect 19 system, I think anybody would agree with that. 20 MR. MURPHY: Okay. But you're not going to 21 have any problem applying the law that the judge gives 22 you? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 24 THE COURT: If there's proof in the case that 25 this defendant made a high salary, you're not going to VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 70 1 hold that against her? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 3 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Thank you, sir. 4 Have any of you, ladies and gentlemen, ever 5 worked as income tax preparers or have accounting degrees, 6 anything like that? I know, ma'am, you said you worked at 7 a CPA office? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: My ex-husband was a CPA and 9 I worked for 18 years of just preparing tax returns. I 10 didn't do the actual -- the CPAs in the firm did the 11 interaction with the IRS, but I did prepare tax returns. 12 I don't do that now, but I did. 13 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Do you have any bad 14 feelings about the IRS based on your experience working 15 with the CPA firm? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, if anything, it helped 17 me feel better. I learned that you didn't have to fear 18 it, the people -- that the IRS does their information on 19 the information that they have, and the tax accountants' 20 role is to help them, if they have information the IRS 21 does not have, and so it didn't leave negative feelings 22 about the IRS. 23 MR. MURPHY: You understand that if you're 24 selected on the jury, you're going to have to decide the 25 case based on the facts that are admitted into evidence VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 71 1 and the law as the judge gives it to you? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh. 3 MR. MURPHY: Do you understand that? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 5 THE COURT: And do you understand you can't go 6 back, and if you're selected as a juror, you say, well, 7 now, wait a second, when I was with the CPA firm, they did 8 it this way? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, yes, sir, I 10 understand that. And this is so much back in the past -- 11 in fact, I had just about even forgot this, that I should 12 bring this up. I am a pastor of a church now, so my world 13 doesn't evolve around the -- this world now. 14 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Mr. Salaam, have you ever 15 done any taxes or anything like that? They're going to 16 pass you the mic. 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I haven't. 18 MR. MURPHY: Because you talked about it being 19 a 7201 charge. 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I've studied prelaw at St. 21 Louis University some, and I've attended a lot of trials, 22 but never did anything with taxes but pay them. 23 MR. MURPHY: What kind of trials did you 24 attend? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: All type. I participated VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 72 1 in the King trial, all 30 days with Dr. William Peppers. 2 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Were you helping Dr. 3 Peppers in the presentation of that case or were you just 4 there? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I served as security 6 for the King family. 7 MR. MURPHY: Okay. I believe on the jury sheet 8 it says you work for one of the local funeral homes? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 10 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Are you a security officer? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I'm a family counselor, 12 family service counselor, and sometimes a funeral 13 director. 14 MR. MURPHY: Okay. How long have you worked at 15 Memphis Funeral Home? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Forest Hill. 17 MR. MURPHY: Forest Hill, I'm sorry. 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's the other guy. 19 MR. MURPHY: That's the competition. Forest 20 Hill. 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: About a year and a half. 22 MR. MURPHY: Okay. 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have a family business 24 too. 25 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Now, what you learned in VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 73 1 school and the prelaw courses and what you learned by 2 sitting in this these trials, you understand that's not 3 something that you can use in this case because the judge 4 will instruct you on the law, and the facts may be 5 different, all that sort of thing? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I understand it. I'm 7 glad you understand it too. 8 MR. MURPHY: Okay. I don't know. Sometimes I 9 don't understand it. It's just engrained in us, in 10 lawyers, things have got to be just so-so. 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: All right. 12 MR. MURPHY: Okay. I'm down to my last 13 question, ladies and gentlemen. And lawyers are kind of 14 like Baptist ministers, finally does not necessarily mean 15 immediately. Is there anything about this case or 16 anything that y'all think the lawyers and the judge ought 17 to know that hasn't come up? Anything we haven't asked 18 that you think that we should have? 19 Okay. Well, with that, I will sit down, ladies 20 and gentlemen. Thank you. 21 THE COURT: We're going to go until -- no, 22 we're ready, we're fine, we will go until about 25, 27 23 after, and then we will take our lunch break, and I will 24 have to give you -- I will have to have a couple of 25 minutes to tell them the rules about those sorts of VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 74 1 things, so you have got about 10 minutes. 2 MR. BECRAFT: I will just tell you that you can 3 wave your hand and cut me off any place. 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I will just speak up. 5 MR. BECRAFT: Ladies and gentlemen, my name is 6 Larry Becraft, and I'm here to represent Vernie Kuglin, 7 who is the defendant in this case. And, of course, the 8 other fellow over here is Bob Bernhoft, and my question to 9 you is, first and foremost, has anybody ever met Vernie 10 Kuglin, heard about her or heard about her lawyers? How 11 about -- you know, some people -- the U. S. Attorney's 12 office is one floor below, a lot of people work down 13 there, do any of you know or are you socially acquainted 14 with anybody that works in the U. S. Attorney's office? 15 Whether it is an attorney -- yes, Mr. White. 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 17 MR. BECRAFT: You know someone? And who would 18 that be? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Terry Harris. 20 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. The U. S. Attorney? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 22 MR. BECRAFT: Are you socially acquainted with 23 him? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Not socially, 25 professionally. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 75 1 MR. BECRAFT: So out at the airport, the 2 U. S. Attorney's office has some dealings with the 3 security out there, and that's the way you've met him and 4 worked with him, correct? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 6 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Is there anything about 7 that relationship that would maybe cause you to be 8 favorable to the government and simply because you know 9 the man that runs the office? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 11 MR. BECRAFT: So you can cast that aside if 12 you're picked as a juror? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 14 MR. BECRAFT: Is there anyone else that knows, 15 you know, either the lawyers or the investigators or 16 anybody else that might work in that office? 17 Now, we're going to have in this case -- you 18 know, we're going to bring in some people from the IRS, 19 some people from the Service Center, it is going to be IRS 20 people that are going to take the witness stand, and my 21 question to you at this time is this: You know, are you 22 going to be giving to anybody that is a government 23 employee greater credence to their testimony just because 24 they work for the government? Anybody that is going to be 25 leaning in the direction of giving greater credence to VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 76 1 somebody that works for the government rather than giving 2 the same type of credence you would for any other witness? 3 I take it most of you are -- or, in fact, all 4 of you, is there anybody here who does not live in Shelby 5 County? And you, Mr. White? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Vedder. 7 MR. BECRAFT: Vedder, I'm sorry. How far away 8 do you live from the courthouse? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Tipton County. 10 MR. BECRAFT: And you live where? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Lauderdale County. 12 MR. BECRAFT: And how long does it take y'all 13 to get to court? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It takes me an hour and a 15 half. 16 MR. BECRAFT: An hour and a half? 17 THE COURT: Where do you live in Lauderdale 18 County? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Halls, Tennessee. 20 THE COURT: Halls, okay. And I'm sorry, where 21 do you live in Tipton County? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It took me about 45 23 minutes. 24 THE COURT: And you live in which part of 25 Tipton County? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 77 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Drummonds. 2 THE COURT: I live in Rosemark, which is one 3 mile south of the line -- 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah. 5 THE COURT: I used to work in Covington. 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Drummonds. 7 THE COURT: Drummonds, okay, yeah, yeah. Just 8 to get an idea. It may not be quite as familiar. I think 9 those are distances -- I know anybody from Tipton County, 10 we always end up asking them to drive back and forth. 11 People from further away, if it takes a long time, we'll 12 actually enter an order and let you stay in a hotel, if we 13 can get a hotel room in the downtown area if it becomes a 14 problem. A lot of people prefer to commute. Anybody from 15 as far north as Dyersburg, I usually suggest that they 16 stay overnight, just so far -- that's just such a long 17 drive. I need to let you know that, and you wouldn't 18 necessarily know that was the policy on trips. Go right 19 ahead. 20 MR. BECRAFT: Thank you, Your Honor. Anybody 21 else? If you're picked as a juror, are you going to have 22 a problem getting here to court? Somebody might park over 23 there at Mud Island or some other place. Does anybody 24 think if you're picked as a juror you're going to have a 25 difficult time at least getting to court here whether we VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 78 1 start at 9:00 or 9:30 in the morning? 2 Mr. Murphy asked some questions along these 3 lines, but I want to kind of repeat it because I may not 4 have been hearing what his question was closely. My 5 question relates to either you, yourself, or members of 6 your immediate family or some of your close friends that 7 you meet on a regular basis, you know, you hold -- they're 8 part of your family almost. Out of that group, are there 9 any of you or members of your families or those close 10 friends that have ever at any time worked for either state 11 or federal law enforcement? All right. How about anybody 12 that has either themselves or members of their family or 13 close friends that have ever worked for either state or 14 federal government, and I'm including everything, you 15 know, like if it was any agency of the federal government, 16 any agency of the state government, does anybody 17 themselves or members of their family or close friends 18 work for government in any way, shape, manner or form 19 other than the ones that -- yes, ma'am. 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: My brother is a lieutenant. 21 COURT SECURITY OFFICER: Pass the mic. 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He works for the Sheriff's 23 Department. 24 MR. BECRAFT: Sheriff's Department? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 79 1 MR. BECRAFT: Your brother? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 3 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Shelby County? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 5 MR. BECRAFT: All right. And how long has he 6 been employed? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: About 13 years. 8 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Do you see him on a 9 regular basis? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 11 MR. BECRAFT: All right. So chances are if you 12 were picked as a juror in this case there might be a 13 possibility that you would see him sometime during the 14 course of the trial? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Possible. 16 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Well, you wouldn't let 17 your -- if you were picked as a juror, would you let your 18 brother, this Shelby County deputy influence you or your 19 decision in this case in any way, shape, manner or form? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, because he wouldn't 21 know about the case I was on. 22 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Thank you. Mr. White? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Sir? 24 MR. BECRAFT: What? Did you raise your hand? 25 I thought you did. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 80 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I didn't. Although -- 2 MR. BECRAFT: We know you work for the Airport 3 Authority. 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. I actually have 5 several close friends that are FBI agents. 6 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Thank you. 7 Mr. Spurlin? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Used to work for the FAA. 9 MR. BECRAFT: And how long ago was that? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: '81. 11 MR. BECRAFT: And how long did you work for the 12 FAA? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Eleven years. 14 MR. BECRAFT: And you're working now, you left 15 probably about '92 '93, the FAA? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I left in '81. 17 MR. BECRAFT: And for the last 20 years, you 18 have been working -- we had a little note that you work in 19 auto sales, is that correct? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right, auto parts. 21 MR. BECRAFT: And have you been doing that 22 since you left the FAA? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Basically, except for one 24 year. 25 MR. BECRAFT: Do you have any friends or VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 81 1 relatives that still work for the FAA that you still talk 2 to? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 4 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. All right. Thank you. 5 Anybody else that raised their hand to that question about 6 either being employed by or having friends that are 7 employed by some government agency? Have any of you 8 ever -- Mr. Murphy asked the question about whether or not 9 you had served in a civil jury. I don't know -- if y'all 10 came in maybe last week for jury service, but let me ask 11 this specific question: Have any of you ever sat on a 12 grand jury, either state or federal? You know, a grand 13 jury is a group of people that assembles in a building 14 much like this, either in the -- some courthouse, state or 15 federal, and they have government agencies and other 16 witnesses come before them to tell them about the 17 commission of crimes, and a grand jury returns an 18 indictment. Now, has anybody ever sat on a grand jury 19 before, state or federal? Okay. How about -- I think 20 your answers to Mr. Murphy's questions about civil juries, 21 I don't think there was anybody here who sat on a civil 22 jury. How about a criminal jury? Okay. 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Shelby County. 24 MR. BECRAFT: Shelby County. How long ago was 25 that? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 82 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I would say roughly 10, 11 2 years ago, 12 years ago maybe. 3 MR. BECRAFT: And that was a criminal case? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, it involved DUI. 5 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. And would there be 6 anything about your service in that prior criminal case 7 that would have any effect upon what you do or think or 8 decide if you're picked as a juror in this case? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 10 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. All right. And, Mr. 11 Smith, did you raise your hand? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 13 MR. BECRAFT: And you have been a juror in a 14 criminal case before? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir, that's correct. 16 MR. BECRAFT: And how long would that be? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I would say roughly about 18 five years ago. 19 MR. BECRAFT: And was that state or federal? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I think it was state. 21 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Here in Shelby County? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 23 MR. BECRAFT: Would there be anything about 24 your service as a juror in a criminal case that -- you 25 know, you sat through one criminal trial in the past and VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 83 1 you may be picked to sit in another criminal jury this 2 time here, is there anything about your prior experience 3 that might have some influence or effect upon how you 4 listen to the evidence or react in this case if you're 5 picked as a juror? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 7 MR. BECRAFT: All right. So you can leave that 8 totally behind you, whatever you did then, and consider 9 this case based solely on the facts and the testimony and 10 the documents that are offered in evidence? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Absolutely. 12 MR. BECRAFT: Was there anybody else who raised 13 their hand to the question about criminal jury service? 14 How about -- we're going to be bringing in some 15 people to testify in this case. Is there anybody who has 16 ever been a witness either in a civil or a criminal case 17 meaning, you know, you had to come up here and sit down in 18 a chair? Ms. Vickers. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: In a custody case, child 20 custody case for my daughter. 21 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. All right. So you had to 22 go to -- was that here in Shelby County? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, it was in north 24 Alabama. 25 MR. BECRAFT: How long ago was that? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 84 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It will be a year in 2 September. 3 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Was there anything about 4 that experience that might have an effect upon -- now, 5 you're not sitting up there in what we call the hot seat, 6 you will be sitting as a juror in this case, is there 7 anything that would maybe affect what you do in this case 8 having been a prior witness? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Maybe be able to hear that 10 person a little better after having sat there. 11 MR. BECRAFT: All right. Anybody else that 12 responded to being a witness? Let me take Mr. Spurlin. 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It's probably been 30 14 years. 15 MR. BECRAFT: As a witness in a case? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 17 MR. BECRAFT: Well, there's no -- that's not 18 going to affect what you do here, right? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 20 MR. BECRAFT: Mr. Salaam, I think you raised 21 your hand? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, in 1979, I was a 23 character witness for one of my co-workers. 24 MR. BECRAFT: All right. Was that in a civil 25 case, criminal case? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 85 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Civil case. 2 THE COURT: And sometime ago, what you did then 3 wouldn't have any effect upon your role as a juror in this 4 case if you're picked, right? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 6 MR. BECRAFT: Was there anybody else? And you 7 are Mr. Stovall? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. Probably about 20 9 years ago, I was a witness for an employee of mine, he was 10 up on drug charges. 11 MR. BECRAFT: All right. 12 THE COURT: We're going to need to take our 13 lunch break. 14 MR. BECRAFT: Sure, Your Honor. 15 THE COURT: I need to tell everybody seven 16 things before we take that break. We will get the jury 17 today, I'm sure. In fact, it may not be that far into the 18 afternoon. But any time we take a break, there's seven 19 things to keep in mind. The first thing is you cannot 20 discuss the case among yourselves. It's very tempting, 21 because that's the one thing you all have in common is 22 that you're juror on a -- or potentially a juror on a 23 case. You cannot discuss the case. Don't talk about the 24 lawyers, the parties, anything about the proceedings at 25 all. When you start talking about any aspect of the case, VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 86 1 you start the mental process of making up your mind, and 2 we cannot do it once you start it. So I'm going to ask 3 you not to verbalize anything about the case. The second 4 thing is not only are you not to talk among yourselves 5 about the case, but obviously you're not to talk with 6 anybody else. If you need to call an employer or family 7 member or somebody and tell them what you're doing, you 8 can call and tell them that you're a prospective juror in 9 a criminal case in federal court and you cannot tell them 10 anything, because naturally people ask. So tell them that 11 you're -- that's all you can tell them is that you're a 12 potential juror in a criminal case in federal court. You 13 can tell them more about it when the case is over or when 14 you're released. The third thing is that if anybody 15 should try to talk you about the case, it's improper, and 16 so do not -- if they do, tell them they shouldn't, but, 17 secondly, report that to one of our court security 18 officers. They're the ladies and gentlemen who have on 19 the blue jackets and the badges, and they will let me 20 know, or a member of my staff or me. The fourth thing is 21 don't speak to the lawyers or the parties, you can't -- 22 you should give them space. If you see them get on an 23 elevator, let them take an elevator, you take the next 24 one, because if they were seen speaking to you or 25 appearing to be close to you engaged in conversation, it VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 87 1 might appear that they were attempting to influence you. 2 They will avoid that, but they need your help in that 3 regard. So don't speak to them at all. The fifth thing 4 is do not do any research or make any investigation. I 5 know that some people may know something about the law in 6 the area. Don't go to the library and look anything up or 7 make any type of inquiry. It's our job to -- the lawyers' 8 job to present the evidence through the witnesses and the 9 facts, and then it's my job to give you the law. So don't 10 try to make any investigation in that regard. The sixth 11 thing is, of course, avoid anything in the newspaper or on 12 television or radio that might be about this case or cases 13 like this. You simply -- that would be outside the -- 14 that would be material presented outside the presence of 15 the court and the parties, so you cannot consider that. 16 If inadvertently you see something in the newspaper or 17 hear something, then tell me about it, and it probably 18 won't be a problem, but you need to tell me so we can 19 check and see if it is. And the seventh thing is keep an 20 open mind. Obviously, one of the first things that you 21 told me about until you have heard all the evidence in the 22 case, the final arguments of counsel and the final 23 instructions on the law and have gone to the jury room and 24 then discussed the evidence among yourselves, which will 25 be probably four days from now, and then after you have VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 88 1 discussed the evidence with each other, four days from now 2 after you have heard all the proof and the final arguments 3 and final instructions, then make up your mind. So wait, 4 continue to be patient and wait. 5 Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to ask you to 6 come back at 2:00 o'clock, and we'll see you at 2:00 7 o'clock, we'll resume jury selection at that time. All of 8 you, we will ask you to be back at that time. Thank you. 9 (Recess taken at 12:30 until 2:00 p.m.) 10 (Jury in.) 11 THE COURT: All right. I think we have got 12 everybody. Yes, sir. You may proceed. 13 MR. BECRAFT: May it please the court, ladies 14 and gentlemen, right before our lunch break, I wrote the 15 last question that I had asked of y'all about being a 16 witness, and I think my recollection is that everybody 17 that had replied to the question had given me some 18 information about that. Did I miss anybody? 19 As you know by now, this is a tax case. Ms. 20 Kuglin is charged with six counts of tax evasion, bad 21 word, but I expect that what she is going to do in this 22 case is she is going to take the stand, tell you the 23 reasons why, and her testimony will involve something 24 about tax law. And Judge McCalla was asking some 25 questions earlier today about how many people have some VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 89 1 information or knowledge or have ever studied the tax laws 2 in any way, shape, manner or form. For example, have you 3 taken a course involving tax or have you ever picked up a 4 tax code or other information and actually studied that? 5 What I would like to know from any of you right now is if 6 you have ever engaged in any type of the study of the tax 7 laws like I have just described? Yes, ma'am. And that 8 would arise because you worked in the past for the CPAs. 9 And did that involve getting down to the details of the 10 Internal Revenue Code? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It involved sometimes 12 looking up what the code was in preparing a tax return. 13 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Now, with that in mind, I 14 want to tell you something that's going to happen during 15 this case. Ms. Kuglin is going to give her beliefs about 16 the law, but all the law that is applicable in this case 17 will come from the court, you understand that, right? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh. 19 MR. BECRAFT: And so if you have some 20 preconception or some view of tax or some recollection, 21 can you lay all of that aside if you're picked as a juror 22 and just listen to what Judge McCalla tells you is the law 23 that will be applicable in the case, can you do that? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It has been done many years 25 ago, so it has been done. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 90 1 MR. BECRAFT: Anybody else fall in that 2 category that has done some type of personal study of the 3 tax law? 4 This is a criminal case and, you know, a lot of 5 people have seen on TV -- you know, we have Perry Mason, 6 and we have all of these other shows about civil and 7 criminal cases, and I think probably all of you're aware 8 of the burden of proof that's involved in a criminal case. 9 In a civil case, all you have to do is kind of tip the 10 scales of justice over to one side. The party that proves 11 by a preponderance of the evidence their case is entitled 12 to win. However, in a criminal case, the burden of proof 13 is, you know, what we do here in America is we have a 14 burden that is imposed upon the government, here it's 15 represented by Mr. Murphy. They have got to submit proof 16 in this case to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. 17 Kuglin committed the crimes. Is there anybody here that 18 kind of disputes or has some difference of opinion about 19 the burden of proof that the government might have to 20 carry in this case? Now, in this case, you know, I'm not 21 going to tell you what the whole facts are, but, you know, 22 I can assure you that after the government ends their 23 proof, one of the first witnesses, we may have two, maybe 24 one, maybe three defense witnesses, but one of the defense 25 witnesses is going to be Vernie Kuglin. She is going to VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 91 1 get up and explain to you why she did what she did. Is 2 there anybody here that at this stage, without knowing the 3 substance of what she is going to testify about, is there 4 anybody right here that says, well, gee, you know, I have 5 heard enough about this case that, you know, there is 6 nothing that she can say that would persuade me that she 7 is anything other than guilty? Is there anybody here that 8 is in that posture right now? Is everybody that on this 9 panel, in this jury box right here, are you going to tell 10 me that you will fairly listen to the testimony of Vernie 11 Kuglin, fairly weigh it and make a determination as to 12 whether she is not guilty or guilty, will each of you do 13 that? 14 You know, you have already heard a little bit 15 about the facts of this case. She is an airline pilot. 16 She flies for FedEx, has been doing so for a number of 17 years. She lives down at the end of the street. She 18 lives in downtown Memphis. She has a condo down there. 19 The proof is also going to show that their son, go down 20 far enough south on Main Street during lunch you will pass 21 by where her son lives, 1 Main Street. You know, just 22 knowing the fact that she is a FedEx pilot, just knowing 23 the facts that she makes -- you know, you heard Judge 24 McCalla read out those large figures that were in that 25 indictment, 140, 150, $160,000 is what FedEx was paying VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 92 1 her each year, she lives in a condo at Waterford Place. 2 They're in the process of building or buying an office or 3 a building down at 1 Main Street South. So it's quite 4 obvious that what is going to come out in this case, what 5 you're going to be able to see about Vernie Kuglin is 6 someone that is, you know, makes good money and lives 7 nice, and there's going to be testimony in this case 8 regarding her, you know, disputes with the IRS. Now, is 9 there anyone that knowing that much about the facts of 10 this case that you're thinking in your mind, well, I've 11 got some type of preconceived notion or I'm -- you know, 12 I'm somewhat uncertain about this blonde headed lady over 13 here that is a FedEx pilot making a lot of money and 14 living in a nice place in downtown Memphis, is there 15 anyone that right now has something inside of them that 16 says, you know, there's something I don't like about 17 Vernie Kuglin, is there any such feeling inside any of 18 you? 19 Okay. Now, can each of you, with those facts 20 in mind, treat her just like any other defendant? Could 21 you treat her just like -- what if the facts in this case 22 were some 20 or 25 years ago when she was working for the 23 welfare department, if she were a defendant and her job 24 was what she had 25 years ago working for the welfare 25 department, will you judge her equally under both sets of VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 93 1 facts? You won't have any problems or take into 2 consideration her station in life and hold that against 3 her when you decide this case? Will each of you -- you 4 know, this case is going to last, as you've heard, we're 5 probably going to try to wrap up, hopefully, Thursday 6 morning. After that's over with, what we're going to do 7 is the lawyers will get up and give closing arguments 8 after you have listened to all of these witnesses that 9 will testify. The lawyers are going to kind of summarize 10 the case, but at the end of that, Judge McCalla is going 11 to read to you a set of jury instructions. He's going to 12 tell you about what's important in this case, and what's 13 important in this case will be what I call this criminal 14 state of mind that you must find in order to find her 15 guilty. If she doesn't have a criminal state of mind, 16 she's not guilty. Now, will each of you follow, listen 17 tentatively to what Judge McCalla has to say about what 18 the government must prove, listen to the law that she 19 gives to you and will each of you follow it? Any 20 reservations? 21 Has anybody had problems hearing me? Anybody 22 have anything against me? Anybody have anything against 23 Vernie Kuglin? Anything against Bob Bernhoft, the way he 24 looks? Is there anybody here that for whatever reason, 25 maybe Judge McCalla might not like this, but I want to VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 94 1 know, have you got any reason, just show me your hand, I 2 don't want to sit in this case? So each of you are 3 willing -- 4 THE COURT: I just raised my hand, I got plenty 5 to do. 6 MR. BECRAFT: So nobody -- everybody is willing 7 right now to sit maybe through Friday afternoon and 8 discharge your American civic duty? 9 THE COURT: I'm going to let my technical guy 10 come up and just talk to me a second. Go right ahead. 11 MR. BECRAFT: Can I go ahead, sir? 12 THE COURT: Absolutely. We have to fix a 13 couple of pieces. 14 MR. BECRAFT: Does anybody here have any 15 problem with the way that we settle criminal cases, 16 criminal disputes here in America? We bring in twelve 17 tried and true members of our community and submit to them 18 for ultimate resolution the ultimate question of whether 19 or not someone is guilty or innocent of a crime? 20 Nothing further, Your Honor. 21 THE COURT: We were just checking, we need to 22 fix that lapel mic, it wasn't working, and Ike is going 23 to -- Mr. Mussleman is going to get that taken care of, 24 and that was it. 25 Well, anything else from anybody else for the VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 95 1 panel at this time? 2 MR. MURPHY: Judge, I don't have anything else, 3 but -- 4 THE COURT: Let's talk about it at side bar, 5 because I wanted to ask a couple of questions. There are 6 a couple of things that sometimes are covered and haven't 7 been covered yet, so I want to check. 8 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 9 bench.) 10 THE COURT: Usually y'all or I ask a few 11 questions, do you want to ask those? 12 MR. MURPHY: If you want me to do personal 13 stuff, that's fine. 14 THE COURT: I can run through them real 15 quickly, I'm going to go through them real fast, just 16 their employer, I'm going to get whether they're married 17 or not, what does their spouse do. I'm going to ask them 18 what part of the district they live in. 19 (The following proceedings were had in open 20 court.) 21 THE COURT: I raised my hand because I used to 22 tell people that anybody who really wanted to serve on a 23 jury probably shouldn't. That's sort -- that's an 24 important frame of mind to probably approach it. It is 25 real serious business. Usually we ask a couple of VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 96 1 questions, sometimes I ask them, sometimes the lawyers ask 2 them. Really in this case, really nobody asked them. We 3 do have a small information sheet on each of you, but very 4 small, so what we're going to do, just to make sure that 5 we know a little bit about each of you, is I'm going to 6 start with Ms. Vasser, I'm going to ask each of you set a 7 questions. I'm going to ask what you part of the district 8 or city do you live in. As you can see, some people live 9 outside Shelby County, and also it is helpful for people 10 to know, for example, if you live downtown, if you live on 11 Harbor Town, if you live in Waterford Plaza, but just 12 generally what part of the district or city you live in. 13 Then I'll ask you what's your occupation, who's your 14 employer, are you married, and if you're married, I'm 15 going to ask who your spouse is, so they will know and 16 so -- they will hear the name, and what does your spouse 17 do, just to make sure we have covered that with each 18 person, and then I'm going to ask you that final question, 19 is there any reason that you cannot serve on this jury and 20 be fair and impartial. Somebody usually asks those, and 21 since they haven't been asked, I'm going to make sure we 22 have covered them. We also have you stand up when you do 23 that just so everybody can hear you okay. So if you will 24 stand please, what part of the city or district are you 25 from? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 97 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm Wolfchase area. 2 THE COURT: Okay. I left out one thing, I'm 3 going to add one thing in there. And what is your -- I'm 4 going to ask your educational background. And I don't 5 want to know very much, just how far you went in school. 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: College. 7 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 8 your employer? For some people, we know some of this, but 9 tell us that. 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm a carrier for FedEx. 11 THE COURT: I think it's probably been obvious, 12 but everybody wants to be sure, a person who works at the 13 airport or works at FedEx, do you know Ms. Kuglin? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 15 THE COURT: Okay. Are you married? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 17 THE COURT: Your husband's name and his 18 occupation? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: William Vasser. 20 THE COURT: And what does he do? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He's a team leader for 22 FedEx. 23 THE COURT: Okay. Any children? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 25 THE COURT: How many children? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 98 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: One. 2 THE COURT: How old? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Twelve. 4 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 5 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 7 THE COURT: Thanks very much. 8 And Mr. White? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 10 THE COURT: What is your title out there? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Director of operations and 12 public safety. 13 THE COURT: So people call you Director White 14 sometimes? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 16 THE COURT: Director White, what part of the 17 district or city are you from? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Collierville. 19 THE COURT: And what is your educational 20 background? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Master's degree. 22 THE COURT: Go ahead and tell us your 23 occupation and who you work for. 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: The director of operations, 25 public safety. I work for the Memphis-Shelby County VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 99 1 Airport Authority. 2 THE COURT: And are you married? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I am. 4 THE COURT: Your wife's name and her 5 occupation? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Deborah White. Not that 7 one, and she is an accountant. 8 THE COURT: And she is an accountant. Okay. 9 It would be bad to miss that one. 10 Do you know of any reason that you could not 11 serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I do not. 13 THE COURT: Thanks very much. 14 Mr. Spurlin? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 16 THE COURT: What part of the district or city 17 are you from? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Southeast Shelby County. 19 THE COURT: Okay. And how much education do 20 you have? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: High school. 22 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 23 your employer? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Sales rep for Prime 25 Automotive. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 100 1 THE COURT: Tell us what they do again, I think 2 I heard earlier, but -- 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, parts store, we sell 4 to parts stores and warehouses. 5 THE COURT: Okay. Are you married? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 7 THE COURT: And what is your wife's name and 8 her occupation? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Betty, and she works for 10 Methodist Hospital. 11 THE COURT: Okay. Do you know of any reason 12 that you could not serve on this jury and be fair and 13 impartial? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 15 THE COURT: I should have asked you, do you 16 have children? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 18 THE COURT: How many children? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, two of my own and one 20 stepson. 21 THE COURT: And I should ask, Mr. White, do you 22 have children? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir, two. 24 THE COURT: Two children, okay. 25 Hand that over to Mr. Salaam. How are you VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 101 1 doing this morning? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Perfect. 3 THE COURT: What part of the district or city 4 are you from? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Midtown. 6 THE COURT: What is your educational 7 background? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Doctorate. 9 THE COURT: Is that in -- what's that in? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Theology. 11 THE COURT: Theology. You know, nobody asked 12 this question directly, and we nearly always ask this 13 question also, and it really goes to everybody, is there 14 any theological reason that you could not sit in judgment 15 in a case? And some people do feel that they cannot sit 16 in judgment. May as well ask the first one. 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, not at all. 18 THE COURT: Generally speaking, most people who 19 have your background say that. There are a couple of 20 denominations who do not want their members to sit on 21 juries. 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 23 THE COURT: Have you ever run into that? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 25 THE COURT: Okay. Let's see, what is your VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 102 1 occupation and who is your employer? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Forest Hill Funeral Home 3 and Cemeteries. I'm a family service counselor and also 4 funeral director. 5 THE COURT: Are you married? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 7 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 8 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Not at all. 10 THE COURT: Thank you. Mr. Vedder, what part 11 of the district or city are you from? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Tipton County. 13 THE COURT: Okay. And actually you're from 14 sort of northwest of Tipton County? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Northwest. 16 THE COURT: Toward the river? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 18 THE COURT: And what is your educational 19 background? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: One year of college. 21 THE COURT: And what is your occupation and who 22 is your employer? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm general manager of a 24 warehouse for Cirtain Plywood, Incorporated. 25 THE COURT: Okay. Are you married? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 103 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 2 THE COURT: Your wife's name and her 3 occupation? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Wife's name is Karen, and 5 she's retired. 6 THE COURT: Okay. Do you have children? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Got three daughters of my 8 own and one stepson. 9 THE COURT: All right. Do you know of any 10 reason that you could not serve on this jury and be fair 11 and impartial? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: None whatsoever, sir. 13 THE COURT: Thank you. 14 And, Mr. Smith, is it Mr. Marlow Smith? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Marlow Smith. 16 THE COURT: How are you doing today? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Doing pretty good. 18 THE COURT: What is your -- what part of the 19 district are you from? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I live in Whitehaven. 21 THE COURT: Okay. And what is your educational 22 background? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: High school. 24 THE COURT: What's your occupation and who is 25 your employer? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 104 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, I'm a golf pro, but 2 I'm a retired golf pro. 3 THE COURT: Okay. Okay. 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I got down in my back and 5 can't do much playing anymore. 6 THE COURT: What was the best you ever shot, 7 I'm curious? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Four under. 9 THE COURT: Four under? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah. 11 THE COURT: That's a lot better than most 12 people. 13 Are you married? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 15 THE COURT: What is he your wife's name and her 16 occupation? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Nell. She works for 18 Walgreens. 19 THE COURT: Children? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Got 14 kids, nine boys and 21 five girls. 22 THE COURT: That's true? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah, 47 grandkids. 24 THE COURT: That's -- that may be a record. 25 Congratulations. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 105 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I've run across some that 2 had more. 3 THE COURT: That's wonderful. Well, do you 4 know of any reason that you could not serve on this jury 5 and be fair and impartial? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 7 THE COURT: Thank you. Ms. Starnes, what part 8 of the district or city are you from? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Raleigh area. 10 THE COURT: What's your educational background? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: High school. 12 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 13 your employer? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm a billing manager for 15 Raleigh Cordova Medical Group. 16 THE COURT: Are you married? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Separated. 18 THE COURT: What does he do and what is his 19 name? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: His name is Robert, and 21 he's a mechanic for Gossett Mitsubishi. 22 THE COURT: Does that mean you get a good car 23 most of the time? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That means I don't drive a 25 Mitsubishi. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 106 1 THE COURT: All right. Do you have any 2 children? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have three. 4 THE COURT: Okay. Do you know of any reason 5 that you could not serve on this jury and be fair and 6 impartial? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I can be fair and 8 impartial, and I did send in a reason with my 9 questionnaire, but they denied it. 10 THE COURT: Okay. You know, we don't 11 necessarily see that many of those, so is it a real 12 problem -- 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It's relevant, yes, sir. 14 THE COURT: I'm going on -- in a minute, I'm 15 going to let you come up and tell me, just so we know it's 16 okay. We have a lot of people who asked to be excused, 17 and then most people after they see the process think, 18 well, it's okay, they can do it. I will talk to you in 19 just a couple of minutes. 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. 21 THE COURT: Hand that back to Mr. Smith. Mr. 22 Smith, what part of the district or city are you from? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Southeast, Orange Mound 24 area. 25 THE COURT: Okay. And what is your educational VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 107 1 background? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have a master's. 3 THE COURT: Okay. And what is your occupation 4 and who is your employer? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm a teacher at the Porter 6 Leath Home for Children. 7 THE COURT: That's a very famous institution. 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, it is. 9 THE COURT: Are you married? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, divorced. 11 THE COURT: Children? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Ten. 13 THE COURT: These are all your kids? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: All these are my kids. 15 THE COURT: Well, this is -- we're having a 16 contest this time. Do you know of any reason that you 17 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Your Honor, no, I don't. 19 THE COURT: Okay. Thanks very much. 20 Ms. Vickers -- or Reverend Vickers, actually. 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 22 THE COURT: What part of the district or city 23 are you from? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: From Halls, Tennessee, 25 which is Lauderdale County. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 108 1 THE COURT: You know, you have -- near Halls, 2 one of the most famous map stores in the country. 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Haven't been there, but I 4 have heard of it. 5 THE COURT: It is amazing, they take orders 6 from all over the world. What is your educational 7 background? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Master of divinity. 9 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 10 your employer? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I pastor the Poplar Grove 12 Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and they are my employer. 13 THE COURT: Are you married? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Divorced. 15 THE COURT: Children? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Three. 17 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 18 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 20 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. 21 Mr. Smith, Mr. Alphonso Smith, what part of the 22 city or district are you from? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I stay out in Raleigh. 24 THE COURT: Okay. And what is your educational 25 background? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 109 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Associate's degree. 2 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 3 your employer? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Presently, right now I'm a 5 dispatcher for Memphis Truck and Trailer Services on 6 Lamar. 7 THE COURT: Are you married? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 9 THE COURT: Your wife's name and her 10 occupation? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: My wife's name is Patricia. 12 She's a substitute teacher for the Memphis City School 13 system. 14 THE COURT: Any children? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Two girls. 16 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 17 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 19 THE COURT: Thank you. Mr. Stovall, what part 20 of the district or city are you from? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Collierville. 22 THE COURT: What is your educational 23 background? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Bachelor's degree. 25 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 110 1 your employer? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm a salesman for 3 Yarbrough Cable Service. 4 THE COURT: Are you married? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 6 THE COURT: Your wife's name and her 7 occupation? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Susan Stovall. She is a 9 registered nurse office manager for a psychiatrist. 10 THE COURT: Okay. Do you know of -- do you 11 have any children? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Four. 13 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 14 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 16 THE COURT: Thank you. 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Thank you. 18 THE COURT: Mr. Viverette, what part of the 19 district or city are you from? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: South Memphis. 21 THE COURT: What is your educational 22 background? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: BS. 24 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 25 your employer? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 111 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Substitute teacher, Memphis 2 City Schools. 3 THE COURT: Are you married? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 5 THE COURT: Your wife's name and her 6 occupation? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Elize Viverette, teacher, 8 Memphis City School system. 9 THE COURT: Children? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Three boys. 11 THE COURT: All right. Do you know of any 12 reason that you could not serve on this jury and be fair 13 and impartial? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 15 THE COURT: Thank you. 16 And, Ms. Saul, what part of the district or 17 city are you from? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Wolfchase area. 19 THE COURT: What is your educational 20 background? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: High school. 22 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 23 your employer? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Secretary, U. S. Department 25 of Agriculture. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 112 1 THE COURT: Are you married? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Divorced. 3 THE COURT: Children? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: One. 5 THE COURT: And do you know of any reason that 6 you could not serve on this jury and be fair and 7 impartial? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 9 THE COURT: Thank you. 10 And, Ms. Snodgrass, what part of the district 11 or city are you from? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Raleigh. 13 THE COURT: What is your educational 14 background? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: High school and a few 16 college courses. 17 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 18 your employer? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Flight attendant, Delta 20 Airlines. 21 THE COURT: Are you married? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Divorced. 23 THE COURT: Children? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Three girls. 25 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 113 1 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No reason at all. 3 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. Mr. Murphy, I 4 think that may have covered everything. Anything else 5 from the United States? 6 MR. MURPHY: No, sir, Your Honor. 7 THE COURT: Anything else from the defense? 8 MR. BECRAFT: None, Your Honor. 9 THE COURT: All right. If you will each fill 10 out your strike sheets and, of course, they're exercised 11 simultaneously, and I will explain to you what is going 12 on. When we first go through the -- and sometimes we have 13 a lot of conflicts, in this case not very many. Oh, wait 14 a minute, we have got somebody who wants to talk to us. 15 Ms. Starnes, come around to side bar. Sorry, Ms. Starnes. 16 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 17 bench.) 18 THE COURT: I didn't mean to leave you out. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's okay. The only 20 thing I had to send in is my husband, his father, his 21 health is not good, and I am his caregiver, I'm his 22 primary caregiver, I'm who he calls. If something were to 23 go wrong and I was here and he couldn't get me, he won't 24 call anybody else. I mean I take care of his finances and 25 I coordinate his medical care, and he lives by himself, VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 114 1 and I -- you know, I'm not trying to get out of 2 everything, I'm just who he calls. 3 THE COURT: I understand. Let me ask you a 4 couple of questions. 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. 6 THE COURT: Just to make sure. One, let me 7 tell you one thing, we will probably select at least one 8 alternate in the case, so assuming that there's no 9 emergency, of course, you could serve, and if it turned 10 out that he had to go to the hospital or something, we 11 could let you be excused, that wouldn't be -- 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. I just want to make 13 sure I can take care of him, that's all. 14 THE COURT: Right. And so we recognize these 15 things can happen. 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. 17 THE COURT: Now, let me ask a couple of things. 18 Now, does he -- he's -- is he ambulatory, he gets around 19 on his own? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. Not well. 21 THE COURT: About how old is he? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He's 82. 23 THE COURT: Okay. 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He has got Parkinson's 25 disease along with some other medical conditions, but the VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 115 1 Parkinson's keeps him from moving around well. 2 THE COURT: How often do you see him? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Usually about twice a week, 4 and then I talk to him every day. 5 THE COURT: Okay. He's become your buddy and 6 that sort of thing, I mean? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: There's not any other 8 family. 9 THE COURT: You're it? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Like I said, Robert would 11 do for him, but he's going to call me. I just take care 12 of everything and have since -- well, for a long time. 13 THE COURT: For a long time? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He can't drive or anything. 15 THE COURT: Okay. Does he take care of his own 16 meals or does somebody come in and help him? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He does do his own meals. 18 THE COURT: Does he take any medications that 19 you have to be concerned about? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, no, he takes care of 21 all of that. 22 THE COURT: Okay. Let -- what we normally do, 23 if somebody is the sole caregiver of somebody who 24 requires, you know, constant care, and that doesn't mean 25 every minute, but that means somebody there in the VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 116 1 morning, afternoon, somebody is there quite a bit of the 2 time during every day, we excuse them, we always do. 3 That's just pretty routine. If it is somebody who has a 4 primary responsibility, but is only there a couple of 5 times a week, what we usually do is ask them to serve on 6 the jury, but tell them that, you know, they can check in 7 with the individual, and -- we ask them not to keep their 8 cell phone on during court, but, you know, if it is an 9 emergency that comes up that at that time we will address 10 it and excuse them. We need to. But the main question 11 I'm going to let these lawyers ask -- there's another 12 question they usually ask. Anything else, Mr. Murphy.? 13 MR. MURPHY: Ma'am, is the -- thinking about 14 your father-in-law situation, is it going to weigh on your 15 mind so much you're going to have trouble listening to the 16 proof? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 18 MR. MURPHY: Okay. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I can't let anybody worry 20 me that much, I would go crazy. 21 THE COURT: But I mean that's the main thing we 22 want to know. 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Like I said, as long as I 24 know that if something happened, that I can drop and run. 25 THE COURT: As long as you tell us. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 117 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: You would know. You would 2 know. 3 THE COURT: Just let us know right away and we 4 will take care of it. 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. That's the main 6 thing. Thank you. 7 (The following proceedings were had in open 8 court.) 9 THE COURT: All right. Each side can fill out 10 their peremptory challenge sheets. There are two kinds of 11 challenges. One is for cause, that's what I indicated 12 earlier, and that's when somebody knows somebody to such 13 degree, for example, that they couldn't be fair or maybe 14 they have had a very similar experience, then, typically, 15 they're allowed to be excused for cause. Once we have got 16 14 people who are not excused for cause, then each side 17 gets a certain number of peremptory challenges, and 18 technically -- well, theoretically, they can excuse you 19 for any reason, but there are a couple of unconstitutional 20 reasons that they cannot excuse you, so -- I would like to 21 correct that. They cannot excuse you because of your 22 gender, they couldn't try to knock all the women off or 23 all of the men off. They couldn't excuse you because of 24 your race, they couldn't excuse you because of your 25 national origin, religion, things that are protected under VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 118 1 the Constitution, they cannot excuse you for those 2 reasons, but -- and so they have pretty broad discretion 3 in peremptory challenges, but not unlimited discretion. 4 In a minute, they're going to hand up their peremptory 5 challenge sheets, and we will see who gets to go ahead and 6 go home and who gets to stay with us. And when we excuse 7 that group of people, then we call folks from the panel 8 and ask you some additional questions. 9 We got a lawyer back there? Somebody who looks 10 like a lawyer? He's not one, I suppose. He's not a 11 lawyer. Okay. He's all right. No problem. 12 (Strike sheets were handed to the Judge.) 13 THE COURT: Okay. Let me see counsel at side 14 bar. 15 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 16 bench.) 17 THE COURT: There were five strikes by the 18 defense, but one of them was previously struck by the 19 government, so there are four charged against the 20 defendant. 21 On the first row, defense -- excuse me, the 22 defense struck Mr. White and then the government struck 23 Mr. Spurlin and Mr. Salaam, and the defense struck Mr. 24 Smith, Mr. Marlow Smith, and the defense struck Ms. 25 Starnes in seat seven, so two, three, four, six, seven. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 119 1 On the second row, the defense struck Ms. Saul in seat 2 nine. The government struck Mr. Viverette in seat 10 and 3 Ms. Vickers in seat 13. So the rest are accepted as 4 jurors in the case. Any objections by the government? 5 MR. MURPHY: No, sir, Your Honor. 6 MR. BECRAFT: No, Your Honor. 7 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. 8 MR. BECRAFT: I'm operating under the 9 presumption there's no back strikes? 10 THE COURT: There are no back strikes. 11 (The following proceedings were had in open 12 court.) 13 THE COURT: We're going to excuse part of you, 14 eight of you, and keep the rest, and for those who are 15 being excused, thanks for being here, and we do appreciate 16 the fact that you were available for service. 17 On the first row, we're going to excuse Mr. 18 White, Mr. Spurlin, Mr. Salaam and Mr. Smith, Mr. Marlow 19 Smith. So first row, seats two, three, four and six and, 20 Ms. Starnes, seven. 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Do we need to call back 22 tomorrow? 23 THE COURT: You will not need to. In fact, 24 this counts as your jury service. So thanks very much. 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Thank you. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 120 1 THE COURT: Appreciate it. 2 On the second row, we're going to excuse Ms. 3 Saul, Mr. Viverette and Reverend Vickers, so thank you. 4 Yes, ma'am, Ms. Starnes, we're going to let you be 5 excused. It worked out well for you. 6 We're going to reseat the ones who have been 7 selected because you have been selected as jurors in the 8 case, and we're going to ask Mr. Vedder, move over to seat 9 two. Ms. Snodgrass will actually move to seat three, Mr. 10 Stovall to seat four, Mr. Smith to seat five -- Mr. 11 Alphonso Smith seat five, Mr. Keith Smith to seat six. So 12 you become the first six jurors that have been accepted in 13 the case. We're going to seat another eight individuals 14 and ask them a few more questions. We will start with 15 filling seat number seven and then seat eight and so 16 forth. 17 THE CLERK: Billy Shaneyfelt. Phillip Smith. 18 Rose Saulsbury. Freida Straughter. Melanie Stewart. 19 Patsy Smith. Arun Gandhi. Russell Ingram. 20 THE COURT: Is your last name pronounced 21 Shaneyfelt? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Shaneyfelt. 23 THE COURT: Mr. Shaneyfelt, how are you today? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Fine. 25 THE COURT: We asked quite a few questions. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 121 1 I'm going to sort of reverse my process a little bit and 2 just go ahead and ask those people those last questions to 3 make sure we have covered that with everybody, and then I 4 will ask a couple of follow-up questions. Would you stand 5 and tell us what part of the district or city you're from? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm from Bartlett. 7 THE COURT: And what is your educational 8 background? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have a bachelor's degree. 10 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 11 your employer? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm an interface programmer 13 with Baptist Hospital. 14 THE COURT: Tell us what that does so we will 15 understand. 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Computers talk to 17 computers, I control that. 18 THE COURT: Are you married? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, married. 20 THE COURT: And your wife's name and her 21 occupation? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Wife's name is Pam. She is 23 a school teacher with Shelby County schools, and we have 24 two children. 25 THE COURT: Two children. Do you know of any VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 122 1 reason that you could not serve on this jury and be fair 2 and impartial? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 4 THE COURT: We had asked a lot of questions 5 about the type of case and prejudgment and all those 6 questions, did they seem to make sense to you? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 8 THE COURT: Do you have any problem in giving 9 the defendant the presumption of innocence that the law 10 requires on each and every count in this case? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No problem. 12 THE COURT: If the government fails to prove 13 its case against the defendant on any count or all counts, 14 do you understand you have to return a verdict of not 15 guilty? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 17 THE COURT: All right. Well, we talked about 18 all of those characteristics, I'm going to ask other folks 19 a few other things. 20 Hand that back to Mr. Ingram, if you would. 21 Mr. Ingram, how are you today? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm fine, thanks. 23 THE COURT: Are you married to a lawyer? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, not a lawyer. 25 THE COURT: A judge? I know. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 123 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's right. 2 THE COURT: Well, she is also a lawyer. 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I suppose so. She is my 4 lawyer. 5 THE COURT: That's right. You're in trouble, 6 but that's good. Well, first of all, what part of the 7 district or city are you from? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Highland Park. 9 THE COURT: And what is your educational 10 background? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have a couple of 12 bachelor's degrees. 13 THE COURT: What's your occupation and who is 14 your employer? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm a general manager. I 16 work for Physiotherapy Associates, one of their divisions. 17 THE COURT: Okay. You are married, is that 18 correct? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I am married. 20 THE COURT: Your wife's name is and her 21 occupation? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Holly Kirby. She is a 23 Tennessee appellate court judge. 24 THE COURT: Do you -- y'all don't have any 25 kids? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 124 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have two stepchildren. 2 THE COURT: Two stepchildren, right. Do you 3 know of any reason that you could not serve on this jury 4 and be fair and impartial? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: There's no reason I could 6 not be fair and impartial, however, there is a reason that 7 I can't serve, if it please you. 8 THE COURT: I'm going to make a note and we 9 will talk about that in a minute. 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. Thanks. 11 THE COURT: It's Mr. Arun Gandhi? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Gandhi. 13 THE COURT: You're from India? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 15 THE COURT: And your very famous relative -- 16 you have a very famous relative? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh. 18 THE COURT: And before -- I'm going to ask a 19 couple of questions, though. Tell us what part of the 20 district or city you're from. 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Midtown. 22 THE COURT: Okay. And what is your educational 23 background? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Home schooler. 25 THE COURT: Okay. And what is your occupation VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 125 1 and who is your employer? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm self-employed, and my 3 occupation is teaching nonviolence. 4 THE COURT: Exactly. And I was trying to think 5 of the correct name for the center that -- 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: The M. K. Gandhi Institute 7 for Nonviolence. 8 THE COURT: Are you married? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 10 THE COURT: Your wife's name and her 11 occupation? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Sanunda. She is a 13 researcher. 14 THE COURT: Where is she a researcher? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: At the institute. 16 THE COURT: Do you have children? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Two. 18 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 19 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. Like him, I have a 21 personal reason. 22 THE COURT: Okay. I'm going to put that down, 23 and we'll -- I'll just ask those questions at side bar. 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. 25 THE COURT: Thank you. Ms. Smith, what part of VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 126 1 the district or city are you from? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: East Memphis. 3 THE COURT: And what is your educational 4 background? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: High school. 6 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 7 your employer? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Housewife. 9 THE COURT: Are you married? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, 45 years. 11 THE COURT: All right. Do you have children? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have one daughter and one 13 stepdaughter. 14 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 15 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 17 THE COURT: Okay. We did ask everybody, I have 18 got two people I'm going to talk to at side bar, but it 19 was a long discussion really about not forming opinions 20 before you've heard all the evidence and had the final 21 arguments, final instructions on the law. Any problem 22 with following those instructions and proceeding in that 23 manner? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I don't think so. 25 THE COURT: When you -- when I read the VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 127 1 indictment and we had all that discussion and I read the 2 indictment, did you think -- does that put -- cause some 3 stress for people in terms of being able to remain fair 4 and impartial? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Kind of. 6 THE COURT: Okay. No, that's really what I'm 7 talking about. 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah. 9 THE COURT: Why do you say that? I think 10 you're right, but why do you say that? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, I don't really know, 12 it's just -- I mean we all know we have to fill out taxes, 13 so I don't know, it just kind of seems strange. 14 THE COURT: Okay. All right. And in the 15 law -- in the tax law, there's law about the requirements 16 to file taxes and there's also a thing called a good faith 17 defense, and that's what we're probably going to be 18 talking about in this case. I don't know that for sure, 19 because they never tell me exactly what they're going to 20 do, because they don't have to. And it's a theory under 21 which a person can proceed without -- perhaps without 22 taxes, and the jury just has to decide that question. 23 Now, you can't start out on one side or the other, you 24 have to listen to the law as I give it to you at the end 25 of the case and apply that. I'm going to tell you VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 128 1 something about the law before the case really gets going 2 too. Can you keep an open mind, because I think you hit 3 it right on the head, it sort of moves you off center a 4 little bit and you have to work to get back to center. 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'll try. 6 THE COURT: Okay. And you understand why we're 7 trying to do that? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 9 THE COURT: Because it's not fair for anybody 10 to start out with some mark on that slate. 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's right. 12 THE COURT: Okay. I just wanted to make sure I 13 covered that with somebody, and everybody agrees. 14 Let's hand that to Ms. Stewart. Ms. Stewart, 15 how are you from? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Just fine, Your Honor. 17 THE COURT: What part of the city or district 18 are you? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Germantown. 20 THE COURT: And what is your educational 21 background? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Law school. 23 THE COURT: And that's not a very profitable 24 advocation at this point, going to school. How long have 25 you been going to school? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 129 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, my educational 2 background is law school. I have been an attorney for 22 3 years. 4 THE COURT: I thought so. I thought there was 5 an attorney out there, and you didn't raise your hand. 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm the senior partner in 7 Stewart and Wilkinson. 8 THE COURT: That's what I though. 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I raised my hand. 10 THE COURT: I didn't see you, and I thought I 11 had it mixed up. 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: We do insurance defense 13 work. 14 THE COURT: I feel much better now. I wasn't 15 wrong about that. 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: But I don't disagree. 17 THE COURT: Do you do tax work? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, Your Honor, not on a 19 regular -- occasionally we have tax questions, but not 20 very often. 21 THE COURT: You know, the -- 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: But I am in the Falls 23 Building, and the IRS is on the fourth and sixth floor. 24 THE COURT: What floor are you on? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: The eighth. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 130 1 THE COURT: You know something, we had jurors 2 who were lawyers before, that's really not a problem if 3 they can do certain things. For example, they have to not 4 tell everybody else what the law is, they have to take the 5 law from the judge. Now, usually the law I give them -- 6 because these lawyers will all tell you, it is very clear 7 that that is really the law, but is that something that 8 you would be able to do if you were the -- a juror, that 9 is take the law as I give it to you and not substitute 10 your own opinion about what the law is? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, Your Honor. 12 THE COURT: Okay. You don't -- now, you do 13 mainly insurance defense now? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 15 THE COURT: Okay. I want to make sure, I'm 16 going to go back and ask that question again, have you 17 ever done a tax case? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Have I ever handled a tax 19 case? No. Have I given opinions after research on tax 20 law? Yes. 21 THE COURT: Have you ever given an opinion in 22 connection with 26 United States Code, Section 7201? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 24 THE COURT: I want to make sure that we haven't 25 done that. Now, the other thing is, ladies and gentlemen, VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 131 1 for all the rest of you, I'm not going to go back on my 2 other jurors, particularly, but do you realize that if Ms. 3 Stewart is an attorney in the case, we just always make 4 sure that the jury understands that she can't answer any 5 legal questions, and you can't ask her any legal questions 6 because she is just there as a fact-finder and then a 7 person to apply the law. She is not there to give legal 8 advice to the jury, and it would be improper to do that. 9 Any problem with that, Mr. Shaneyfelt, that you wouldn't 10 be able to say, now you're a lawyer, you ought to know the 11 answer to this? You would not be able to do that? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 13 THE COURT: Okay. And I'm going to go back to 14 a couple of my jurors that are already selected, I usually 15 don't necessarily do this, but, Ms. Vasser, do you 16 understand that you wouldn't be able to defer to Ms. 17 Stewart just because she is a lawyer? You couldn't just 18 agree with her because she is a lawyer, because you're 19 there to decide the facts and to apply the law to them, 20 you're not there to just agree. It's a trial by twelve -- 21 trial by twelve jurors, not a trial by one juror who is 22 going to tell all the jurors what to do. That's real 23 important everybody agree on that. Any problem with that? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 25 THE COURT: If Ms. Stewart says, look, this is VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 132 1 what I think ought to be done, you realize you don't have 2 to agree with her? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 4 THE COURT: Do you have any problem with 5 disagreeing with somebody if you think that they're wrong 6 and you're right? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I do not. 8 THE COURT: Mr. Vedder, any problem with the 9 fact that you would not be able to turn to somebody and 10 say, now, this is what Ms. Stewart says, she is a lawyer, 11 therefore, you should agree; you could not do that? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No problem, Judge. 13 THE COURT: I hope this makes sense to 14 everybody. It is real important. 15 Ms. Snodgrass, any problem with that? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No problem. 17 THE COURT: In other words, you're going to 18 decide the facts and those fact issues are not ones on 19 which a lawyer could express an opinion other than just 20 like everybody else? They would just say, well, I think 21 these are the facts, no problem with that. 22 Let me make sure, then, it's Mr. Stovall, Mr. 23 Stovall, any problem with the fact that you're going to 24 have to make up your own mind about the facts, you could 25 not refer to an attorney who happened -- VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 133 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, Your Honor. 2 THE COURT: That also means that you don't have 3 to elect an attorney foreperson. I'm not saying -- you do 4 what you want to on that -- 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 6 THE COURT: But they don't get special status. 7 Nobody gets a special spot on the panel with special 8 deference. Any problem with that? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 10 THE COURT: And Mr. Alphonso Smith, any problem 11 with the fact that if you do happen to end up with a 12 lawyer on the panel, you cannot give their opinion or 13 their observations as to the facts any more -- you have 14 got to rely on yourself to determine the facts and consult 15 with all your other members of the jury, you can't just 16 rely on one person who happens to have a law degree. 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No problem. 18 THE COURT: And the same thing for Mr. Keith 19 Smith. 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, no, Your Honor, no 21 problem. 22 THE COURT: We have actually -- and I think we 23 have already covered it with Mr. Shaneyfelt, so I will 24 hand it back to Mr. Ingram. 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I don't have a problem. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 134 1 THE COURT: And the same thing, Mr. Gandhi, you 2 understand if you're on the panel, you couldn't do that. 3 I'm going to go to Ms. Patsy Smith, any problem 4 with that, Ms. Smith? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Huh-uh. 6 THE COURT: Even if it turns out that you like 7 Ms. Stewart, you wouldn't be able to agree with her just 8 because she is a lawyer, is that okay? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 10 THE COURT: Ms. Stewart, I hope that doesn't 11 offend you, but we always check this out, and sometimes we 12 end up with physicians, we do the same thing with anybody 13 who -- you know, if it is a malpractice case, we still ask 14 the same question. Now, is that going to be difficult for 15 you to sit as a juror and be fair and impartial? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 17 THE COURT: Because -- are you usually aligned 18 with one side or the other, the government or the defense? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: We do civil litigation, 20 Your Honor. 21 THE COURT: Okay. 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: We -- some of the lawyers 23 in my office may handle some criminal work, but I don't. 24 THE COURT: All right. Let's go back and make 25 sure I covered a couple of other things. Are you married? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 135 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 2 THE COURT: And your husband's name? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Sam. 4 THE COURT: And what does he do? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He's an insurance adjuster 6 for GEICO. 7 THE COURT: Has he been busy? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 9 THE COURT: Do you have children? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: We have two girls, three 11 and a half and 19 months. 12 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 13 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 15 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. You threw me 16 off, I didn't see you raise your hand, so I completely -- 17 I thought I was wrong. Nice to have you. 18 Now, let's see, help me with pronouncing your 19 last name. 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Straughter. 21 THE COURT: I'm going to spell it phonetically 22 because you have got lots of letters in there. I 23 shortened it, so I will remember it. Ms. Straughter, how 24 are you today? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Good. How are you? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 136 1 THE COURT: I'm fine. What part of the 2 district or city are you from? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: In Mitchell Heights. 4 THE COURT: What is your educational 5 background? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: High school. 7 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 8 your employer? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay, I work for Memphis 10 City Schools, cafeteria helper, Idlewild Elementary. 11 THE COURT: They have had some famous alumni at 12 that school, it's a very interesting school. 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. 14 THE COURT: Of course, there was -- one of the 15 district judges went to that school. He's retired now. 16 And then I'm going to tell something I shouldn't probably 17 say, I think Machine Gun Kelly went to Idlewild, didn't 18 he? It was before he became known in his later career, 19 very interesting history. 20 Are you married? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Divorced. 22 THE COURT: Children? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Four. 24 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 25 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 137 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 2 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. Ms. Saulsberry? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 4 THE COURT: What part of the city or district 5 are you from? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Southeast. 7 THE COURT: What is your educational 8 background? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Twelfth. 10 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 11 your employer? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Retired. 13 THE COURT: From what? We just want to make 14 sure you're not a retired IRS agent? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: From General Electric. 16 THE COURT: Okay. And are you married? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 18 THE COURT: Your husband's name and his 19 occupation? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Johnny, retired. 21 THE COURT: What did he retire from? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Cleowrap. 23 THE COURT: Children? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: One daughter. 25 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 138 1 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 3 THE COURT: And I did ask Ms. Patsy Smith 4 some -- a little longer question, I want to ask one of you 5 those questions, but do you think that it is difficult to 6 get back to being a completely neutral person when you 7 know the nature of the charges? Does it cause you some 8 concern about being able to do that? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I do. 10 THE COURT: And it does seem very important 11 that we all be able to do that. Do you think with effort 12 people can go back to that point and really put the 13 government to its burden of proof in this case? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I think we can. 15 THE COURT: All right. I'm going to ask you to 16 hand that over to Mr. Phillip Smith. We have got lots of 17 Smiths on the panel. Mr. Smith, how are you doing today? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm doing fine. 19 THE COURT: What part of the district or city 20 are you from? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm from Raleigh. 22 THE COURT: What's your educational background? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: High school plus trade 24 schools. 25 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 139 1 your employer? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm semi-retired. I have a 3 landscape business now. 4 THE COURT: Okay. I would assume that has been 5 busy lately, though, with all this -- 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, not too bad. 7 THE COURT: What did you do before you retired? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I worked for E. I. DuPont 9 for 32 years. 10 THE COURT: In what section? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, I worked in 12 operations, hydrogen peroxide, sodium cyanide, 13 acrylonitrile and in maintenance the last ten years. 14 THE COURT: The last ten years, okay. It is an 15 interesting -- it has been an interesting place to work. 16 Are you married? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm married. My wife's 18 name is Wilma. I have two sons. 19 THE COURT: Does she still work? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: She is a domestic employee. 21 THE COURT: Okay. She works -- you're saying 22 she works at home? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's right. 24 THE COURT: That's the best deal anybody can 25 ever get is for you to have a spouse that will do that. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 140 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's right. 2 THE COURT: Because it takes a lot of energy. 3 Do you know of any reason that you could not serve on this 4 jury and be fair and impartial? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have had a little bit of 6 experience with persons not paying tax. I had some 7 employees that stopped paying tax, and they tried to 8 convince me not to pay tax. 9 THE COURT: I'm going to do this, I'm going to 10 let us talk about that just a little bit at side bar. Are 11 you familiar at all with the law in this area? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I haven't studied the law 13 on the taxes. 14 THE COURT: We will talk about that in just a 15 minute. We have got three people to talk with at side 16 bar, and I'm going to have Mr. Ingram come around first. 17 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 18 bench.) 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Good afternoon. 20 THE COURT: How are you doing today? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm fine. 22 THE COURT: What is your situation? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm in school. 24 THE COURT: Oh. 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm a master candidate at VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 141 1 Vanderbilt, and I will miss school, which is -- I really 2 can't afford to do that. 3 THE COURT: You're actually during session 4 right now? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Actually, the pre-session 6 starts tomorrow and then the full session starts on 7 Thursday morning. So, you know, it's -- 8 THE COURT: Does anybody have any problem with 9 letting him be excused? 10 MR. BECRAFT: No. 11 THE COURT: Mr. Murphy? 12 MR. MURPHY: No, Your Honor. I'm falling apart 13 here. 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I would like to serve at 15 some point. Is there any way I can defer and -- 16 THE COURT: Sure. Mrs. Saba, let Ms. Dote 17 know. When will you be out of school? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: May of 2004. 19 THE COURT: Just put him down for May of 2004. 20 (The following proceedings were had in open 21 court.) 22 THE COURT: Mr. Gandhi, if you would come 23 around, please. 24 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 25 bench.) VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 142 1 THE COURT: How are you doing? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Very well, thank you. 3 THE COURT: What is your situation? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have to be in Wisconsin 5 over the weekend, conduct some workshops there, and I 6 don't know if I will be able to get back then by Monday in 7 case the -- in case the case goes on Monday. 8 THE COURT: That's really what -- do you have 9 any questions or what do you think? 10 MR. MURPHY: When are you leaving to go up to 11 Wisconsin? 12 THE WITNESS: Friday night. 13 THE COURT: And where are you going up there? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Appleton. That's a long 15 drive, Judge. 16 THE COURT: Any objection to allowing Mr. 17 Gandhi to be excused? 18 MR. MURPHY: No, sir. 19 MR. BECRAFT: No, Your Honor. 20 THE COURT: I think that really might be an 21 impediment. I take it you have to get ready for the 22 workshop? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 24 THE COURT: You would like to be excused? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Please. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 143 1 THE COURT: Without objection, we will let you 2 be excused. 3 MR. BECRAFT: No objection, Your Honor. 4 MR. MURPHY: Thank you. 5 (The following proceedings were had in open 6 court.) 7 THE COURT: Mr. Smith, yes, sir. 8 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 9 bench.) 10 THE COURT: We're going to let you stand right 11 here. What is your situation, you had some employees 12 who -- 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, I worked with some 14 guys that didn't pay income tax for several years. They 15 tried to convince me not to pay income tax, and I think 16 they were convicted and sentenced. It was Eddie Perry and 17 a John Pollard, and I was one of their supervisors, and 18 the other one was before I was supervisor, and I don't 19 know how many years they didn't pay tax, but they didn't 20 convince me, I paid tax and everything, but -- 21 THE COURT: Were they at DuPont? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 23 THE COURT: At DuPont? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Both of them worked at 25 DuPont. And it was several people that wasn't paying VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 144 1 taxes, and I understand that they were -- did get some 2 time out of it. I'm not sure about Pollard, but I think 3 Eddie Perry did. 4 THE COURT: Well, do you -- 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It doesn't have any effect 6 on me. I mean -- 7 THE COURT: At some point in time, you 8 determined something about their argument about not paying 9 taxes. Did you consider -- 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: At the time I thought they 11 were wrong, but I didn't believe them enough that I -- I 12 paid my taxes. 13 THE COURT: Okay. Any questions from anybody 14 else? 15 MR. MURPHY: No. 16 MR. BECRAFT: None. 17 THE COURT: Okay. We're -- we'll keep you. 18 Thanks very much. 19 (The following proceedings were had in open 20 court.) 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Can I ask to speak to you 22 up there? 23 THE COURT: Yes, sir. Okay, we will let you 24 come around. 25 (The following proceedings had at side-bar VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 145 1 bench.) 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm not trying to be exempt 3 from the case, I have one problem that I have come up with 4 is we're having in-service training where I work at at 5 Porter Leath, and I'm doing a CDA class in the evening 6 around 5:00 o'clock at the library. I don't want to be 7 exempted from the class, I want to be a part of it, but 8 would that be a problem? 9 THE COURT: We will normally leave between 5:00 10 and 5:15, so that is going to be an impediment for that 11 class, I think. 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh. 13 THE COURT: And when does Porter Leath start 14 in-service? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: We started today, but I had 16 to be here today. 17 THE COURT: Right, exactly. 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 19 THE COURT: Exactly. Now, what's this class 20 you're taking at the library? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It's called CDA, 22 certification for day treatment. 23 THE COURT: What do you do the skills for? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, basically what we do 25 is, I'm working early childhood development program, and VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 146 1 what we do is we get certified under that type of facility 2 whereas we take care of babies, more or less, six months 3 to three years old. Once they become three years old, 4 then they graduate from my program, and they move to 5 another program, and I just started, you know, this 6 program, so I didn't have any -- I didn't have enough 7 hours even with my master's in child care, so they are 8 sending me to CDA class, okay, so I can get my 9 credentials. 10 THE COURT: Is this required for you to 11 continue to work at Porter Leath? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh. 13 THE COURT: How often is the course offered? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It's three days a week. 15 It's weekly right now, because we graduate the 27th of 16 September. It is like three days a week. 17 THE COURT: How long -- and it's now starting? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It just started this past 19 week, yes, sir. 20 THE COURT: How many classes have you attended 21 already? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Eight. 23 THE COURT: And how long does it go in the 24 evening? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It goes from like 5:00 VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 147 1 o'clock until like 7:30. 2 THE COURT: Where do they teach the course, is 3 it at the main library? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir, on Poplar. 5 THE COURT: And does it start on time at 5:00? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Sometimes it does. 7 Sometimes it doesn't, you know. Annette Knox is giving 8 the class, so it really -- it varies. 9 THE COURT: Questions? 10 MR. MURPHY: No, sir. 11 THE COURT: Do you think you ought to be 12 excused in this? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, it depends on you 14 all. 15 THE COURT: I think they would like you to stay 16 regardless. 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right, right. I enjoy it, 18 I have no problem as long as it doesn't interfere with my 19 job. 20 THE COURT: It's going to make you a little 21 late to those classes, but we'll -- I'll -- we usually 22 leave by 5:15 so that will make -- if you get there by 23 5:30 -- 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: As long as the court can 25 notify Porter Leath and let them know. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 148 1 THE COURT: We can, and we will actually do 2 that. People ask us to do that. 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. 4 (The following proceedings were had in open 5 court.) 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Your Honor, may I address 7 you also? 8 THE COURT: Sure, come around. 9 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 10 bench.) 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm sorry, I just wondered, 12 I have in the past and currently owe back taxes, but the 13 IRS has always been very fair with me on setting up 14 payment plans, so I just wanted to let that come out. 15 THE COURT: Well, I don't think I have ever, 16 but that's the nature of what I do. 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It's part of being 18 self-employed. 19 THE COURT: I was going to say I think that is 20 part of being self-employed. Is that going to cause you 21 to feel uncomfortable? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Oh, no, sir. The IRS has 23 always been very fair to me. 24 THE COURT: They usually work out payment 25 plans, but this is not about that. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 149 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I understand that. 2 THE COURT: This is about a good faith defense. 3 I don't even -- I don't even know that they're going to 4 argue about that -- they're just going to argue -- 5 MR. BECRAFT: Her beliefs. 6 THE COURT: I will get more into that, Your 7 Honor. 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 9 THE COURT: And I will give you the law on 10 that. It's not going to be a real lengthy instruction. 11 Do you have any problem ruling against the IRS if they 12 have been nice to you, that's the question? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 14 THE COURT: Well, I mean -- 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I do feel like I could be 16 fair. 17 THE COURT: Okay. 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Thank you. 19 (The following proceedings were had in open 20 court.) 21 THE COURT: I'm going to call two more names to 22 take seat 13 and 14. 23 THE CLERK: Donald Stage. Larry Inderbitzen. 24 THE COURT: Mr. Stage, how are you? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Good. How about you? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 150 1 THE COURT: I'm fine. What part of the 2 district or city are you from? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Collierville. 4 THE COURT: What is your educational 5 background? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Technical college. 7 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 8 your employer? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Vice-president, Commercial 10 Filter, Incorporated. 11 THE COURT: Where are they located? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Holmes Road and Lamar. 13 THE COURT: Okay. Are you married? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 15 THE COURT: Your wife's name and her 16 occupation? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Alicia, and she is a 18 student, starts teaching at U of M next year. 19 THE COURT: Do you have children? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 21 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 22 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 24 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. Mr. Inderbitzen? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 151 1 THE COURT: Tell us what part of the city or 2 district you're from. 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm from Midtown. 4 THE COURT: What is your educational 5 background? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have a BA degree. 7 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 8 your employer? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm in sales with Memphis 10 Glove Company. 11 THE COURT: You know, I have this recollection 12 that Memphis Glove is a really big glove company, is that 13 right? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, it is considerable. 15 THE COURT: I've heard that it is one of the 16 larger ones around. 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's correct. 18 THE COURT: Are you married? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. I have a wife named 20 Rebecca, and three children. 21 THE COURT: What -- does your wife work outside 22 the home? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, she does. She works 24 for Broom Corn Fabric. 25 THE COURT: Is she at the Midtown store? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 152 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, she isn't. She is at 2 the Perkins location. 3 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 4 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, sir. 6 THE COURT: You know, we're trying to ask 7 somebody in every new group if they have frankly such 8 skepticism about the case that they are going to find it 9 difficult to decide the case solely on the evidence that 10 comes from the witness stand and the law as I give it to 11 them? You're at Memphis Glove and, of course, you have 12 been there how long? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Five years. 14 THE COURT: Five years. And you see why 15 someone might be concerned? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Sure, absolutely. 17 THE COURT: That this might be confusing. 18 There is such a thing as a good faith defense. I don't 19 know whether -- I don't know what the facts are, and if I 20 did, I couldn't tell them anyway, because that's not my 21 job. My job is to make sure that we get twelve people who 22 haven't already made up their mind one way or the other 23 and who are going to listen to the evidence and then apply 24 the law to the facts as they determine the facts to be, 25 and you're going to make some crucial factual decisions in VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 153 1 this case, it sounds like to me. Does it sound like that 2 to you? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 4 THE COURT: And some things are not going to be 5 in dispute. I don't want to get too far ahead, but I 6 don't know that the defense is going to say -- they're not 7 going to say, well, I really did file my income tax 8 return, they're not going to say that. That is not what 9 they're saying. They're saying that, I think -- if I get 10 this wrong, they will quickly tell me -- that Ms. Kuglin 11 had a good faith belief that she did not have to file 12 these returns. I have said it as simply as I could. 13 MR. BECRAFT: Yes, Your Honor. 14 THE COURT: You don't have to agree with me 15 just because I'm sitting up here, believe me, that's not 16 the point, but that's -- and there's some law about that. 17 And if a juror is already on the jury and said, heck, I 18 don't believe that, then you can't be fair and impartial. 19 Now, if a juror says, oh, I'm already going to believe 20 that, that is not right either. Does that seem 21 reasonable? You have got to wait and listen to the proof. 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's correct. 23 THE COURT: Now, can you be neutral and listen 24 to the proof and only decide after you have heard all of 25 the evidence, the final arguments of counsel, the final VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 154 1 instructions on the law about what this defense is about 2 and about how you have to -- what has to be shown in order 3 for it to be the prevailing theory? And then -- and then 4 decide the case applying the law to the facts as you 5 determine -- that all twelve of you determine those facts 6 to be; can you do that? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. 8 THE COURT: This is not a chance for anybody to 9 tell the government that they don't like paying taxes, 10 because it -- who likes to pay taxes? You know, I don't. 11 I will take my hand down. Nobody likes to pay taxes, so 12 it is not about liking to pay taxes. Well, I wasn't 13 trying to pick on you, but you looked -- you're the last 14 one. 15 All right. Now, Mr. Murphy, I'm going to -- 16 you have got some questions for the panel, I know you do 17 of the new panelists. 18 MR. MURPHY: Yes, sir. 19 THE COURT: So I will let you ask those 20 questions, and then we're going to take a break, though, 21 in about 15 minutes. 22 MR. MURPHY: Yes, sir. Good afternoon, ladies 23 and gentlemen, the new members of the panel. I have a few 24 questions to ask you. Do any of you, ladies and 25 gentlemen, that were just seated, do you know any of the VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 155 1 parties, anybody know me, the agents, Ms. Kuglin, the 2 defendant, the defense lawyers? No, okay. Do y'all know 3 anything about the case? Have you ever heard of people 4 talking about the case, speaking about the case? Nobody 5 is speaking up, so I'm going to take that to be a no. 6 Income taxes are always a sensitive subject. 7 You know, the judge said raise your hand if you like 8 paying taxes. Nobody likes paying taxes, that's a given. 9 The question in this case is does the fact -- does the -- 10 is there something about the tax law or the tax code that 11 just upsets you so much or makes you mad or concerns you 12 so much that you can't be a fair juror in this case? And 13 either way, you know, you may think that the government 14 shouldn't prosecute people that don't pay taxes or you may 15 think the government ought to prosecute everybody that 16 doesn't pay taxes; anybody have strong feelings one way or 17 the other? Nobody is speaking up, so I'm going to take it 18 to mean one of two of things, either you ate a big lunch 19 and you're dozing off or you don't have a problem with 20 that proposition. 21 Do you, ladies and gentlemen, understand that 22 as the defendant sits before you now, she is innocent, she 23 is presumed to be innocent? Does everybody understand 24 that? Does anybody have a problem with the presumption of 25 innocence? Does everybody understand that the government VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 156 1 has to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt? Does 2 everybody understand that? Does anybody have a problem 3 with that? Does anybody think our burden should be 4 higher? Does anybody think our burden should be lower? 5 Nobody is speaking up, so, again, I'm going to take it 6 that that is not a problem for anybody. 7 Now, the law -- the way a jury trial works is 8 the jurors decide the facts, they decide whether the 9 government proved their case, but the judge will charge 10 you with what the law is. He'll say, you know, here is 11 what -- how -- the manner in which tax evasion is defined. 12 This is what the statute says. This is the law that 13 you're to apply. Does everybody understand that even if 14 you think that the law is stupid, ludicrous, that you 15 still have to apply it? Does everybody understand that? 16 Okay. Everybody's head is nodding. You can't substitute 17 what you think the law ought to be for what the judge 18 tells you it is. 19 Now, in this case, you'll hear from witnesses 20 who will come in and testify, and jurors in these cases 21 that we have in federal court decide the case that is 22 based on the proof that the judge -- the witness testimony 23 and the exhibits, does everybody understand that you can't 24 get back in the jury room and start talking, say, now, 25 wait a second, my brother-in-law who is on the police VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 157 1 force or my brother-in-law who is an accountant says 2 that's not the way things work? Does everybody understand 3 you can't decide the case that way? You have got to 4 decide it on the facts. Anybody have a problem with that? 5 If you haven't already told us about it, has anybody had 6 any problems with the IRS? 7 Okay. Yes, ma'am, what kind of problems? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: We were audited about seven 9 years ago. Oh, I'm sorry. We were audited about seven 10 years ago. 11 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Is it -- as a result, was 12 it a good experience, bad experience? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, it was a bad 14 experience. 15 MR. MURPHY: Bad experience? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 17 MR. MURPHY: Based on that experience, is that 18 going to change the way you approach the case or look at 19 the case? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I'll try to be fair. 21 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Well, the question is, can 22 you be fair? Can you put that out of your mind? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'll do my best. 24 MR. MURPHY: Okay. You think you will be able 25 to, though? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 158 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Maybe. We had a bad 2 experience. 3 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Judge, can we approach at 4 side bar? 5 THE COURT: You can. 6 Ms. Smith, I'm going to let you come around, 7 too. 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Oh, okay. 9 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 10 bench.) 11 THE COURT: How are you doing? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Freezing. 13 THE COURT: What did they do to you? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: They treated my husband 15 like dirt. He said they acted like he was nobody, and it 16 really wasn't his fault. He had one figure and his boss 17 had another. It mounted out that we had to pay like $250 18 more, and he said they really -- he said they acted like I 19 was nobody. 20 THE COURT: That's a bad experience. 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah, it was really bad for 22 him. And so -- but we just had problems. 23 THE COURT: Mr. Murphy may have a couple of 24 more questions. You know, the idea that people who work 25 in positions of authority like that, which seem to be VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 159 1 without any regulation, sometimes are going to step on 2 some toes pretty badly. 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 4 THE COURT: The question would be, you know, is 5 that going to be something that is going to be on your 6 mind when you're making a decision? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I don't know. I hope it 8 won't. I will try not to. 9 THE COURT: Did you go down there with him when 10 he went? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, he wouldn't let me go. 12 He went by hisself, but he just -- you know, they just -- 13 he told me how they treated him and -- 14 THE COURT: Right. 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He thought they over -- you 16 know, they kind of showed their authority or something. 17 THE COURT: Unreasonably unpleasant? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right, right. 19 THE COURT: Well, Mr. Murphy, questions? 20 MR. MURPHY: Well, it sounds to me like it 21 was -- it was truly a bad experience? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It was. 23 MR. MURPHY: Okay. It sounds to me too like 24 you're -- you're going to try to put it aside, but you're 25 not really sure you can? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 160 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 2 MR. MURPHY: Judge, I don't have any further 3 questions. 4 THE COURT: How long ago was this? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: About six or seven years 6 ago. 7 THE COURT: Are you saying that you -- if you 8 were picked as a juror in this case, could you lay that 9 experience aside? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I don't know. It just 11 depends on what comes up, I guess. I don't know. I know 12 I'm not helping you. 13 THE COURT: Well, that's -- you're supposed to 14 tell us the truth. I'm going to ask you to have a seat 15 over in that little swivel chair and let me talk to these 16 folks. 17 (The prospective juror stepped away from the 18 bench.) 19 MR. MURPHY: Judge, I'm going to move to excuse 20 her for cause. 21 THE COURT: I think we're going to have to. 22 MR. BECRAFT: No problem, Judge. 23 (The following proceedings were had in open 24 court.) 25 THE COURT: Ms. Smith, thanks, we're going to VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 161 1 let you be excused. We appreciate it. 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Thank you. 3 THE COURT: Thank you. Now, everybody wants to 4 come see me. Do you need to see me? Come on around. 5 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 6 bench.) 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No sense in putting out 8 dirty laundry in the public. 9 THE COURT: No. 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: When I was a business 11 owner, I ran into some troubles, and my assets, personal 12 and business, were frozen by the IRS, and I don't know if 13 I could be fair and impartial. 14 THE COURT: Okay. How long did that happen? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It was about 15 years ago. 16 THE COURT: What kind of business was it? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: My wife and I owned a gift 18 shop, and we did manufacturing and we owned it for ten 19 years. 20 THE COURT: Okay. Did -- did -- did you 21 disagree with -- 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I didn't disagree, it 23 was just the process was not very pleasant. 24 THE COURT: Okay. Well, if we exclude 25 everybody who has had a bad experience, we would VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 162 1 exclude -- 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm just being upfront. He 3 asked the question, and I answered. 4 THE COURT: No, that is fine, and the question 5 is, because yours is fundamentally sort of a different 6 situation, I think, this is -- the assertion is here is 7 tax evasion. 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I understand. 9 THE COURT: You didn't have any allegation of 10 tax evasion? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 12 THE COURT: Yours was inability to pay some 13 taxes when they came due? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 15 THE COURT: They apparently came and seized 16 assets in your business? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Froze it. 18 THE COURT: And put you out of business 19 essentially, I guess? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Eventually. 21 THE COURT: And they asserted tax liability, 22 did you agree with their calculation of taxes? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Maybe, yes. Maybe not. To 24 some degree. 25 THE COURT: To some degree? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 163 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 2 THE COURT: Did you find them to be unwilling 3 to listen to your point of view during that process or did 4 they listen, they just -- what did you find? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: They listened. I felt it 6 was a challenge, okay, to get to the finality of it. 7 THE COURT: Okay. Well, I mean this is -- 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I don't have a problem with 9 being a juror, I don't. 10 THE COURT: Right. You know, I think the main 11 thing is to make disclosure and say this happened to me, 12 it was a really bad experience, but can you follow the law 13 and can you decide the facts fairly and impartially, can 14 you do those two things? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I think I can, but, again, 16 I wanted to be upfront. 17 THE COURT: Absolutely. Let me let them ask 18 you some questions. 19 MR. MURPHY: Sir, the only question I have, in 20 deciding this case, can you put the experience you had 21 with the IRS out of your mind? In other words, when you 22 go back there, that goes in a closet, so to speak, and you 23 decide this case based on the facts and the law? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I think I can. 25 THE COURT: Anything else? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 164 1 MR. BECRAFT: This experience, if you're picked 2 as a juror, this experience that you had would not cause 3 you to be against the position of the government? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: This is two-edged, okay. 5 The problem I had in the repayment that I had, okay, I 6 have a feeling on this side and then, again, I look at the 7 young lady over here on this side who has gone through 8 some tax evasion, where I went through some bad years of 9 my life doing repayment on income tax, okay. Being fair 10 to you too. 11 MR. BECRAFT: Yeah. 12 THE COURT: Okay. 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Did I answer your question? 14 MR. BECRAFT: Sure did. 15 THE COURT: Anything else? 16 MR. BECRAFT: No, Your Honor. 17 THE COURT: Thank you. 18 (The following proceedings were had in open 19 court.) 20 THE COURT: We're going to call somebody to 21 take seat 12, and we're going to ask some questions and 22 we're going to take a break right after that. 23 THE CLERK: Stephen Sciara. 24 THE COURT: I'm sorry, spell your last name for 25 me. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 165 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: S-C-I-A-R-A. 2 THE COURT: Okay. Mr. Sciara, what part of the 3 district or city are you from? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Cooper Young. 5 THE COURT: What's your educational background? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have a high school and a 7 culinary degree. 8 THE COURT: What's your occupation and who is 9 your employer? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm an executive chef with 11 Mantia's. 12 THE COURT: You want to tell everybody where 13 Mantia's is? This is your chance for an ad? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Poplar and Mendenhall. 15 THE COURT: Okay. That's right, exactly, 16 exactly. Did you all have a lot of business during the 17 storm, or were you out of business? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Actually, we had power and 19 did a lot of business. 20 THE COURT: What is your specialty? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Really all European. 22 THE COURT: Executive chef is in charge of 23 everything and then sometimes you will have people who do 24 pastries, sometimes people do -- I have a relative who 25 does just meat, I don't know how he managed to do that, VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 166 1 but that's what he does. 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I don't know, I do really 3 everything. I have a total certified executive chef. 4 THE COURT: All right. Well, are you married? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I have a wife, Sheila. 6 THE COURT: And what is her occupation and what 7 is her employer? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: She is a student at the 9 moment. 10 THE COURT: All right. Children? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: One daughter, 22. 12 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 13 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I could. I'm not 15 really into it, but I could do it. 16 THE COURT: You sound like the perfect juror. 17 Okay. Mr. Murphy has got some questions for 18 you, other folks has got some questions for you. 19 MR. MURPHY: Judge, I thought -- 20 THE COURT: Oh, we're going to take our break. 21 Sorry, thanks. We're going to take our afternoon break. 22 Seven things. Don't talk about the case among yourselves. 23 Don't let anybody talk with you about the case. If 24 anybody tries to talk to you about the case, report that 25 immediately to one of our security officers, a member of VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 167 1 my staff or to me. Of course, don't speak to the lawyers 2 or the parties at all. They are not allowed to talk to 3 you. You're not allowed to them. Don't do any research, 4 make any inquiry on your own, and, of course, don't read 5 anything in the newspaper, watch anything on television or 6 listen to anything on the radio about the case and, of 7 course, keep an open mind until you have heard all the 8 proof in the case, final arguments of counsel and final 9 instructions on the law. We're going to take -- we have 10 got a lot of folks, we're going to take a fifteen-minute 11 break, come back, and I think we will get our jury fairly 12 quickly. 13 (Recess taken at 3:33 until 3:50 p.m.) 14 THE COURT: Kind of wait for word that we have 15 got everybody, and then when I don't -- I think we do, 16 though. We're in good shape. Yes, sir, you may proceed. 17 MR. MURPHY: Yes, sir, Your Honor. Have any of 18 you, ladies and gentlemen, that have just been called for 19 jury service ever served on a jury before? 20 Yes, sir. Can you tell me us about what kind 21 of jury you served on? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It was a criminal case. 23 MR. MURPHY: Okay. I know I have probably been 24 over this too many times already, but do you understand 25 that you will get the law in this case, if you're VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 168 1 selected, from Judge McCalla, and that's the law that 2 you're to use in this case? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Correct. 4 MR. MURPHY: I believe this lady right here. 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: DUI and murder case. 6 MR. MURPHY: Over in -- you said DUI? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: DUI and murder case. 8 MR. MURPHY: And was that over in state court? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 10 MR. MURPHY: And same question, you understand 11 that the law that you apply in this case will come from 12 Judge McCalla? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 14 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Do any 15 of you, ladies and gentlemen, have any relatives that work 16 for the federal government, any federal agencies, IRS, 17 Department of Agriculture? 18 Yes, sir. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have two uncles -- two 20 uncles in the TBI and cousin in the Olive Branch Police 21 Department and a cousin in the Knoxville Sheriff's 22 Department. 23 MR. MURPHY: Now, the fact that you have got 24 those family members in law enforcement, is that going to 25 influence your ability to decide this case? In other VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 169 1 words, you're not going to vote one way or another way 2 because of how they would react to your vote? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 4 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Thank you. Okay. 5 Two last things. Now, you, ladies and 6 gentlemen, understand that you have got to follow the law 7 that the judge gives you no matter what you think about 8 it? If you think it is stupid, crazy, whatever, you have 9 still got to follow it, is that going to be a problem for 10 anybody? 11 Is there anything that anybody hasn't told us 12 yet that you think it's something that the lawyers and the 13 judge ought to know? Anything that might affect your 14 decision in the case? Okay. Well, thank you, ladies and 15 gentlemen, I'm going to sit down. 16 MR. BECRAFT: May it please the court. 17 THE COURT: Certainly. 18 MR. BECRAFT: Ladies and gentlemen, for the new 19 panel members up here, I want to direct my questions at 20 you. For the eight of you, have any of you or any member 21 of your family or close friend been involved either as a 22 plaintiff or a defendant in a civil or a criminal case? 23 Yes, ma'am. 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well -- 25 MR. BECRAFT: Ms. Stewart. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 170 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I try cases all the time. 2 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. What kind of litigation do 3 you do? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Civil, insurance defense. 5 MR. BECRAFT: Have you ever -- how long have 6 you been practicing law? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Twenty-two years. Mostly 8 in state court. 9 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. And that includes trying 10 cases? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 12 MR. BECRAFT: And you know most lawyers never 13 get a chance to sit on a jury. 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I know. I'm well aware of 15 that. 16 MR. BECRAFT: I take it with that in mind that 17 you would probably like to be a juror in this case? You 18 get to go where nobody has gone before. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I think it would be very 20 interesting. 21 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Now, being a lawyer, I 22 want to ask this question: If you get back there in that 23 jury room, can you make a promise to me and Judge McCalla 24 and Mr. Murphy, that you won't use your law experience or 25 try to dictate to others about what the law might be that VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 171 1 would be applicable in this case? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I would not. 3 MR. BECRAFT: Would you be fair and impartial 4 to both sides? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Absolutely. 6 MR. BECRAFT: Would you base your verdict on 7 what you hear in the way of testimony in this case, 8 documents that you see, all the other evidence? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: And the law. 10 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Anybody else got a 11 response to being a party? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: You say a lawsuit that we 13 were in? 14 MR. BECRAFT: Yes. 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have got a lawsuit going 16 now. 17 MR. BECRAFT: Oh, you do? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 19 MR. BECRAFT: And you are Mr. Smith. What is 20 the nature of that case? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, this was a wreck my 22 son had in my car, and I'm being sued for the wreck. 23 MR. BECRAFT: All right. 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He wasn't at fault, it was 25 a drunk driver who caused the wreck. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 172 1 MR. BECRAFT: Is -- we understand that that is 2 a civil case in which you were a defendant. This is a 3 criminal case. Can you -- can you completely lay aside -- 4 I know you're probably not happy with what is going on in 5 reference to your civil litigation, but can you lay that 6 aside and if you're picked as a juror in this case not 7 let, you know, your participation in the judicial system 8 affect your verdict in this case? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I think so. 10 MR. BECRAFT: Anybody else got -- Mr. Stage? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: My father was on a ladder 12 attached to a building about six feet off the ground, came 13 unbolted and he fell off and ruptured two disks. 14 MR. BECRAFT: He has got a claim, I guess, for 15 workmen's comp? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I don't know what it is. 17 MR. BECRAFT: He has got a personal injury type 18 claim that he's asserting against somebody else? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh. 20 MR. BECRAFT: Can you lay aside your father's 21 civil litigation, and if you're picked as a juror in this 22 case, you know, kind of ignore that and just limit your 23 testimony, limit any decision that you would make as a 24 juror in this case based on the evidence that you hear and 25 the instructions that the court would give regarding the VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 173 1 law of the case? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh, totally different 3 thing. 4 MR. BECRAFT: Anybody else got a response to 5 that? I think Mr. Murphy asked this question, but I want 6 to make abundantly clear, I didn't know if it included all 7 former jurors, but has anybody here been in any kind of 8 case, be it federal court or state court as a juror in 9 either a civil or criminal case or have sat on either a 10 state or federal grand jury? How about have any of you 11 ever been a witness in a case? 12 Ms. Stewart, and you were called as a party to 13 testify? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I was called as a witness 15 to testify. 16 MR. BECRAFT: All right. And did you give 17 testimony in court? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I did. 19 MR. BECRAFT: Civil case? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 21 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. Well, one was a 23 criminal contempt. 24 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Following a jury verdict, VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 174 1 and the other one was a former client, I got called by her 2 attorney to testify. 3 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Now, would your 4 experience -- we're going to have witnesses come up here. 5 Can you lay aside any experience that you might have, good 6 or bad, about being a witness in this case and not have it 7 affect your verdict if you're chosen as a juror in this 8 case? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 10 MR. BECRAFT: Anybody else that I missed? A 11 moment ago, you know, Judge McCalla, I guess it was a 12 question asked of us, how much are we going to tell you 13 about our defense. Well, I'm going to tell you this: 14 We're probably going to go through this case and maybe 15 there's going to be a lot of stipulations regarding the 16 government's evidence. Hopefully, maybe tomorrow 17 afternoon or maybe sometime Wednesday morning, we will be 18 through with the government's case. After that, Ms. 19 Kuglin is going to get up, and she is going to testify 20 from the stand. I have got a series of questions I would 21 like to ask each of you. Is there anybody here that 22 would, you know, hold something against you based on what 23 you already heard in this courtroom about Ms. Kuglin, if 24 she gets up there and testifies in this case, is there 25 anybody that is going to be prejudiced against her? Is VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 175 1 there anybody that is not going to give her due 2 consideration for her testimony? Well, you have all 3 heard -- you know something about the facts in this case, 4 Judge McCalla read you the indictment. She is a FedEx 5 pilot. She makes good money. You heard what the figures 6 were, and they're not going to be disputed. You know, 7 there is somebody -- somebody from the government is going 8 to come in here and add up the figures, we're going to 9 have somebody from FedEx that is going to come in here and 10 say this is what she made every year, I have no doubt that 11 what the indictment says was her gross for all these years 12 is accurate, you know, anywhere from a hundred and forty 13 grand to maybe a hundred sixty or a hundred and seventy 14 grand a year. Now, those are very large figures, is there 15 anybody here in this case that is going to be, well, gee, 16 you know, I'm not going -- she makes a lot more than I do. 17 Is there anybody here going to be kind of anti or opposed 18 to Ms. Kuglin because she happens to be a FedEx pilot that 19 makes good money that lives down at the end of south Main 20 Street in Waterford condos? Nobody is going to be holding 21 it against her because her station in life is above 22 normal? Okay. Is that -- will all of you promise that 23 you will not hold that against her? 24 Now, the evidence in this case, what she -- I'm 25 going to generally summarize, I'm not going to get down VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 176 1 into the detail, but she is going to give you the reasons 2 why she did what she did. You can kind of look over here, 3 you know, if we get around to opening statements today, 4 you know, I have got a bunch of books stacked up right 5 there, but, you know, she has got her reasons. Now, will 6 all of you promise me that you will listen to her 7 testimony diligently and weigh it like you would any other 8 witness? You will listen to her reasons and give due 9 consideration? Is there anybody that is not going to do 10 any of that? 11 How many of you have ever studied anything 12 regarding tax and specifically income tax? Ms. Stewart. 13 And I guess your answer would be, well, at law school, I 14 had a course, and I think earlier you made some statement 15 that you have given opinions regarding the tax law. So 16 you would know generally something about the issue of 17 income taxation from what any common lawyer would 18 understand, correct? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's right. 20 MR. BECRAFT: All right. Now, with your legal 21 background, can you lay aside -- can you just kind of 22 divorce yourself from everything that you know and come 23 into this case and just listen to the facts and then 24 listen to the instructions that are given by the court? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I can. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 177 1 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Now, one of the things I 2 will tell you is that, you know, in defense, Ms. Kuglin is 3 going to give you her beliefs about the law. She has 4 certain beliefs, and what the court is going to do is, you 5 know, when she starts testifying about that, I want to -- 6 I want to make it plain and clear right now that that is 7 not going to be an effort on Ms. Kuglin's part to try to 8 tell you what the law is. We acknowledge that at the end 9 of the trial, Judge McCalla is going to tell you what the 10 law is. 11 Now, there is obviously going to be a 12 difference of opinion. There's going to be a difference 13 in the testimony and the instructions that the court 14 gives. Now, can each of you look at this -- the facts in 15 this case, these beliefs about the law and make a 16 conclusion, well, I don't think that she had a criminal 17 intent; can each of you do that? Mr. Sciara? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm not so sure that I can 19 do that, because if I was making that kind of money and 20 didn't understand what I was supposed to be doing with my 21 taxes, I would hire somebody to tell me how to do that. 22 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. So both of you think that 23 because she was a FedEx pilot making big bucks -- 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I don't care what her job 25 is. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 178 1 MR. BECRAFT: You think that she should have 2 gone out and sought legal counsel? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I think you either break 4 the law or you don't. I know how to do my taxes. I mean 5 I'm 23, and I know you pay income taxes, and everybody 6 knows that. 7 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Can you -- what I'm 8 specifically asking for is to at least be -- 9 THE COURT: Let me say one thing here. 10 MR. BECRAFT: Sure, Your Honor. 11 THE COURT: You know, and that's a wonderful 12 example of extracting from our own experiences to say what 13 somebody else would do, and often in our lives that's a 14 useful way in which we do things, but in the criminal law, 15 in the criminal law, it really does matter what the person 16 thinks or at least it's supposed to, and you're supposed 17 to give that meaning. So that if -- if we didn't have a 18 tax case, let's say we didn't have a tax case, let's say 19 we had a particular -- different type cases, possession 20 with intent to distribute marijuana, and let's say 21 somebody had a quantity of marijuana, you know, it's 22 illegal to have marijuana, it's illegal, but the charge is 23 possession with the intent to distribute marijuana. Now, 24 you might possess marijuana for more than one reason than 25 distribution. Distribution means to transfer to another VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 179 1 person either with or without financial gain. You might 2 have marijuana for personal use, that's a different 3 section of the code, and that's a different law. So a 4 jury, every time they decide that question, the jury has 5 to decide did that person possess that quantity of drugs 6 with the intent to distribute it. 7 It's -- and so you can have it, right, but not 8 possess it with the intent to distribute it. I'm just 9 trying to make the point that you're going to be asked to 10 decide what was in the defendant's mind, and the 11 government is going to make some arguments about the 12 evidence to try to show what was in the defendant's mind, 13 and the defendant, probably through counsel, is going to 14 make some arguments to show what is in the defendant's 15 mind about the good faith defense on not filing. I'm a 16 little concerned -- 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I understand what you're 18 saying, Your Honor, I just -- I did not want to sit here 19 and pretend that I'm not having feelings like that. 20 THE COURT: And there's nothing wrong with 21 that. 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I was trying to be honest 23 with you, without wasting this court's time or anybody's 24 time that I'm having a little bit of trouble, if we're 25 going to plead, I'm sorry, I didn't understand, because I VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 180 1 don't go for that. 2 THE COURT: I think it's going to be a little 3 different than that. It is probably -- I'm just saying 4 probably because I have some experience. It's probably 5 going to be I believe for these reasons that I didn't have 6 to file an income tax return. Let's say that you were not 7 for profit, they're not arguing that here, and that you 8 really didn't owe any taxes, and you believe you didn't 9 have to file a return, but you didn't file a return, it 10 turned out you were supposed to file a return, you might 11 come in and say I didn't know -- you know, I didn't think 12 I owed any taxes, I didn't think I needed to file a 13 return. So I mean -- and that would be a legitimate 14 argument to make, and you would have to examine the state 15 of mind of that taxpayer to determine whether or not they 16 actually violated the law. Why don't we do this, why 17 don't we -- I was a little concerned about this discussion 18 going too far there. Why don't we -- is it Sciara? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Sciara. 20 THE COURT: Say it again, I'm going to write it 21 down phonetically. 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Phonetically, it would be 23 S-H-I-R-A, Sciara. 24 THE COURT: By the way, I have eaten there. My 25 kids love the food at the restaurant. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 181 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm not trying to cause 2 trouble, I'm just trying to be honest. 3 THE COURT: Let's talk about it at side bar. 4 And the reason I interrupted you is we have to be careful 5 about what we say in front of everybody. If you will come 6 around to side bar, I'm going to ask you a few questions. 7 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 8 bench.) 9 THE COURT: I'm going to let you stand behind 10 the screen, that's sort of the protected place. 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm not trying to cause you 12 any trouble, I just have a hard time believing that 13 anybody that is old enough to have somebody -- I 14 understand she has got an older son, I mean we all know we 15 have to pay taxes. I find this hard to believe. 16 THE COURT: Right. 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Regardless of how much she 18 makes or where she works, I'm not being prejudiced that 19 way. 20 THE COURT: I understand you completely, and 21 this is not going to be about somebody -- it's going to be 22 about -- the question is going to be did she have a good 23 faith belief based on her understanding of the law that 24 she didn't have to file a return. 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I can't help it, I'm sorry. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 182 1 THE COURT: I think I have got it there. 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I apologize. I'm just 3 telling you -- 4 THE COURT: That's okay. 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I work real hard and I pay 6 all my taxes. 7 THE COURT: I understand. 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: This is probably not the 9 one for me. 10 THE COURT: Do you -- do you own part of the 11 business out there? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I get paid by some of the 13 business that we make, yes, sir. 14 THE COURT: Because I think I have seen you. 15 You can see you -- you go up to the counter, you're right 16 behind there? 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 18 THE COURT: Of course, you can see everybody 19 pretty much? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah. And I will be the 21 fourth person in a month that has been called out of that 22 little bitty business for jury duty too. 23 THE COURT: That's -- 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It's really breaking her 25 for me to be gone as well. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 183 1 THE COURT: I understand. Who owns the 2 business? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Alice Mantia, who was on 4 jury duty all last week. 5 THE COURT: I didn't know that. 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: We had two other people out 7 the week before and the week before. 8 THE COURT: That may be in and of itself an 9 unfair -- any questions from anybody? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I apologize. 11 THE COURT: That's okay. I'll just -- I will 12 kid you about it when I come in and eat next time. I will 13 let have you a seat over there, I will check with these 14 guys. 15 (The juror stepped away from the bench.) 16 MR. BECRAFT: I think for cause. 17 THE COURT: I was afraid we were going to 18 get -- 19 MR. MURPHY: Judge, I think this was a good 20 idea. I have no objection to a cause strike. 21 THE COURT: Okay. He's a nice guy, and I 22 understand what has happened. 23 (The following proceedings were had in open 24 court.) 25 THE COURT: All right. We're going to let you VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 184 1 be excused. Thank you very much. 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Sorry for your troubles. 3 THE COURT: Thank you. 4 Mr. Stage, I'm going to let you come around for 5 just a moment. 6 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 7 bench.) 8 THE COURT: Hi, Mr. Stage, how are you doing? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Good. 10 THE COURT: It is important that people be 11 concerned about what the defendant was thinking and what 12 she really believed. Now, it has to be -- the belief has 13 to be one that has some basis in -- it can't -- it can't 14 be a fantasy, but it merely has to be a good faith belief. 15 It doesn't have to be right. 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: The analogy you put 17 together, it would be like me getting pulled over by an 18 officer, saying you know you were speeding and me saying I 19 didn't know what the speed limit is, you're still going to 20 get the speeding ticket. 21 THE COURT: That's true. 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I feel like there's a line 23 of the law, you either break it or you don't and -- 24 beliefs -- 25 THE COURT: Well, in criminal -- remember, this VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 185 1 is a criminal prosecution in a tax case. That doesn't 2 mean -- I'm not going to go on the civil side, that 3 doesn't mean they can't assess you, that doesn't mean that 4 they can't get their money, that doesn't mean that, 5 because that is different. I think that's all correct. 6 MR. BECRAFT: Absolutely. 7 THE COURT: They can seize your house, they can 8 put a tax lien on it, they can do all that stuff. And so 9 it doesn't mean that a person is going to not have to pay, 10 that's not the point. The point is, is it criminal 11 conduct because criminal conduct is different than, you 12 know, than, for example, city taxes, we all know we got to 13 pay them. 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 15 THE COURT: But when people don't pay them, 16 they don't put you in jail for it, they just take your 17 property. And that's -- see, that's fundamentally 18 different than putting you -- than having a potential 19 criminal penalty. 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Another thing too, when 21 y'all said what she was being charged with -- 22 THE COURT: Sure. 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: -- y'all said she provided 24 false W-4s, I mean -- 25 THE COURT: The government is going to try to VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 186 1 prove that. These are not W-2s, they're W-4s. 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Whatever you have got to 3 turn in by April 15th. 4 THE COURT: Do you see what I'm trying to 5 say -- 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: The analogy you're trying 7 to put together, I just don't -- I guess because my state 8 of mind isn't -- I see the law as the law. I mean you 9 either break it or you don't. 10 THE COURT: And one of the elements of the law 11 is that you have the necessary -- for a criminal 12 conviction, not for the civil liability on your taxes, but 13 for a criminal conviction, you have a right to make a bad 14 decision, you have a right to make a decision that is just 15 plain ultimately wrong, but if it is in good faith, if you 16 really believe that, you know, based on regulation or a 17 statute or a code section or something else that you 18 really don't have to pay it, then our government doesn't 19 want you to go -- to be criminally penalized for that. 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 21 THE COURT: Now, they're still going to get 22 your money because they're going to assess -- they're 23 going to put a lien on your property or something like 24 that. 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, I mean -- VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 187 1 THE COURT: That's a different thing. 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: The story would have been a 3 lot more believable to me if it wasn't for the false 4 documentation. 5 THE COURT: We haven't heard any proof yet. 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. When I heard that, 7 that all of a sudden made me feel kind of fishy. 8 THE COURT: I am going to let y'all ask any 9 questions that you want to ask. 10 MR. MURPHY: I don't have any questions. 11 MR. BECRAFT: Are you of the view that right 12 now, you would not listen or give credence to anything she 13 had to say about justifications for why she did what she 14 did? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: If I felt like you could -- 16 it would be a mistake that could have been made, yes, but 17 if it sounded stupid to me, then there is no way you could 18 make that mistake, no. 19 MR. BECRAFT: You think there is no way she 20 could make this mistake here? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I haven't heard the story 22 yet, I got to hear -- I mean why she did it. If she says 23 I forgot -- 24 MR. BECRAFT: My question is, are you so 25 prejudiced right now that you can't be neutral? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 188 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I think I can be neutral. 2 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: But when I -- like I said, 4 the story, if it makes sense to me that I see that, yeah, 5 it could happen, if I put myself in a situation, yeah, I 6 might have been able to make a mistake like that, but 7 then, again, if I look at it and I say, well, there's no 8 way somebody could be that stupid, you know, then I look 9 at it differently and I say no. 10 MR. BECRAFT: Is that the -- what you just 11 said, is that the way you feel right now? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right now, honestly, I'm 13 leaning toward that I think there was no way it could have 14 happened because of the false papers. 15 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's the only reason why, 17 honestly. 18 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Nothing further, Your 19 Honor. 20 MR. MURPHY: Nothing further, Your Honor. 21 THE COURT: We're going to let you have a seat 22 right over there at that green chair. 23 (The juror stepped away from the bench.) 24 MR. BECRAFT: For cause. 25 THE COURT: I don't think we have any choice VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 189 1 here. 2 MR. MURPHY: I don't have any objection, Your 3 Honor. 4 THE COURT: I hope we don't start a trend here. 5 MR. BECRAFT: Side bar fever. 6 (The following proceedings were had in open 7 court.) 8 THE COURT: Mr. Stage, we're going to let you 9 be excused. Thank you. 10 THE CLERK: Pam Stidham. Mozell Smith. 11 THE COURT: Let me get our first juror's last 12 name. Spell your last name for me. 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Stidham, S-T-I-D-H-A-M. 14 THE COURT: Okay. Ms. Stidham, how are you 15 today? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Fine. 17 THE COURT: This whole process seems sort of 18 strange? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Not really. 20 THE COURT: Not really? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 22 THE COURT: What do you understand our main 23 objective in this process is? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Just to listen to the facts 25 and weigh the evidence. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 190 1 THE COURT: And in this voir dire process, 2 we're just trying to find people who haven't already made 3 up their mind. You think some people have already made up 4 their mind in this case? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: The ones who have left 6 probably. 7 THE COURT: Does it seem reasonable to want 8 people that are going to really wait and be patient? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Sure. 10 THE COURT: Are you that kind of person? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I would like to think so. 12 THE COURT: Okay. What do you understand maybe 13 one of the big issues in the case is going to be? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I guess just for us, 15 keeping an open mind and just really listening and hearing 16 out what's being said and maybe learning, you know -- I 17 don't know. 18 THE COURT: Right. And one of the main 19 questions we're going to have to decide is the defendant's 20 state of mind, because I don't think they're going to sit 21 there and tell us that these returns were filed. They're 22 not going to say that. That is not going to be said, is 23 it? 24 MR. BECRAFT: No, Your Honor. 25 THE COURT: In fact, they agree that didn't VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 191 1 happen. They're not going to say, oh, no, I sent it in, 2 they just didn't get it. They're not saying that. 3 They're not saying that I meant to send it in, they're not 4 saying that. They're saying that the defendant had a good 5 faith belief that this was something she did not have to 6 do. And we are going to have to understand whether she 7 really believed that, and there's no mechanism that's 8 better use for this process than a jury because you folks 9 will be able to observe all the evidence that the 10 government puts on because the government is going to try 11 to address this question in its own proof, I'm sure, 12 right, Mr. Murphy? I think some of that is addressed by 13 the government. 14 MR. MURPHY: Judge, I think if -- I can't say 15 for sure, but we have always got rebuttal, so -- 16 THE COURT: Right, the government -- 17 MR. MURPHY: In the total package, we will. 18 THE COURT: No, I'm not saying the case in 19 chief, maybe I said that. The government will present 20 proof on that. The defense may -- the defense may present 21 proof on that, you're going to have to make up your mind. 22 Are you going to be able to be -- wait until you have 23 heard everything and then make up your mind on this 24 question? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I believe so. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 192 1 THE COURT: Okay. Now, tell us what part of 2 the district or city you're from. 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm from Midtown. 4 THE COURT: And what is your educational level? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Almost completed college. 6 THE COURT: Okay. And what is your occupation 7 and who is your employer? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I am mostly a homemaker, 9 but I do some home renovation. 10 THE COURT: Are you married? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 12 THE COURT: Your husband's name and his 13 occupation? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: His name is Greg Stidham, 15 and he is director of ICU at Le Bonheur. 16 THE COURT: Do you know -- do you have 17 children? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He has two sons that are 19 grown. 20 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 21 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I don't. 23 THE COURT: Thank you. 24 Ms. Smith, how are you? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. And you? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 193 1 THE COURT: I'm fine. 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Good. 3 THE COURT: You made up your mind about this 4 case or are you still able to be open-minded about it? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, I can be open-minded 6 about it, but I have personal reasons why I cannot serve. 7 THE COURT: Well, let's talk about that at side 8 bar. 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. 10 THE COURT: Come on up and we will talk about 11 it. 12 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 13 bench.) 14 THE COURT: Yes, sir. 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: My mother just got out of 16 the hospital, and she had both of her legs amputated. I'm 17 the caregiver. So I need to be home with her. And she 18 has doctor's appointments this week. 19 THE COURT: Any objection? 20 MR. MURPHY: No, sir. 21 MR. BECRAFT: No. 22 THE COURT: Thanks for letting us know. 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Thank you. 24 (The following proceedings were had in open 25 court.) VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 194 1 THE COURT: I'm going to let Ms. Smith be 2 excused. 3 THE CLERK: Lauren Smith. 4 THE COURT: Mr. Smith, how are you? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Fine. I'm fine. 6 THE COURT: All right. Do you know of any 7 reason you cannot serve on this jury and be fair and 8 impartial? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Not at this time, no, I 10 don't. 11 THE COURT: What part of the district or city 12 are you from? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm in southeast Memphis. 14 THE COURT: What is your educational 15 background? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Some college. 17 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 18 your employer? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: FedEx is my employer and in 20 internet technology. 21 THE COURT: Do you have any problem with the 22 fact that in this case, the defendant is a FedEx pilot? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I don't. 24 THE COURT: You have never met her, I assume? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I haven't. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 195 1 THE COURT: Okay. Do you -- are you married? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I'm single. 3 THE COURT: How old are you? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Forty-nine. 5 THE COURT: Forty-nine, okay. Do you know of 6 any reason again that you could not sit on this jury and 7 be fair and impartial? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I don't. I don't have 9 any reason. 10 THE COURT: Mr. Murphy? 11 MR. MURPHY: Yes, sir, Your Honor. I know 12 these people down in front are sitting here, well, is he 13 going to ask all these questions again. To the two recent 14 jurors seated, have you ever had any problems with the 15 IRS, any tax problems? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 18 MR. MURPHY: The judge is going to instruct you 19 what the law you're to apply in this case is, you got any 20 problem following that? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 22 MR. MURPHY: Even if you don't like the law, 23 you think it is crazy, are you going to go back there and 24 say I'm not going to do this, this is foolish? No matter 25 what you think, are you going to be able to apply the law? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 196 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 2 MR. MURPHY: Do you know any of the parties in 3 the courtroom, any of the people in the courtroom? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: (Shakes head from side to 5 side). 6 MR. MURPHY: Any family members work for the 7 federal government? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 10 MR. MURPHY: Do you have any strong opinions 11 about the income tax laws, for example, do you think that 12 income tax is unconstitutional and the government ought 13 not to be able to impose taxes on people? I'm getting a 14 look. 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, I think that 16 government has the right to levy taxes on you, sure 17 enough; however, from a recent experience, I know that the 18 government taxed me at a different rate and I didn't think 19 it was fair. My job gave me a bonus, and if they had just 20 taxed me at the same rate as my normal salary, that would 21 have been fine, but they want to tax me at a higher rate. 22 For what? I mean why? You still have to pay the taxes, 23 but why do it on a bonus. 24 MR. MURPHY: Okay. But, now, that experience, 25 is that -- has that made -- is it going to be difficult VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 197 1 for you to be a fair juror in this case? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, it won't make me. 3 MR. MURPHY: In other words, are you going to 4 be able to set all of that said and not say I'm going to 5 equal things up with the IRS? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 7 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Last question and I'm going 8 to sit down. Is there anything that I haven't talked 9 about that y'all need to tell us about, anything you think 10 we might want to know? Okay. Thank you. 11 MR. BECRAFT: We're to our new jurors here, 12 let's bring you up to speed. Do either one of you have 13 any friends, family members that work for the federal or 14 state government in any capacity? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 16 MR. BECRAFT: Have either of you worked for any 17 type of government before? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I was in the Navy for eight 20 years. 21 MR. BECRAFT: That's good enough. That's your 22 only experience? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. Well, I worked for 24 the Defense Depot for awhile. 25 MR. BECRAFT: Have either of you ever been a VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 198 1 witness in a case? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 4 MR. BECRAFT: Gone into court and testified? 5 Been a juror, civil, criminal, grand jury? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: (Shakes head from side to 7 side). 8 MR. BECRAFT: Been a party to a case? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: (Shakes head from side to 10 side). 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: (Shakes head from side to 12 side). 13 MR. BECRAFT: I think that brings them all up 14 to speed, let's get back to the other questions. Y'all 15 seen some fireworks in this courtroom. Do you see some 16 people that have got emotional opinions about taxes? Will 17 each of you listen to what Vernie Kuglin has to say as the 18 reasons why she did what she did? The court told you a 19 minute ago that that is called a good faith defense, and I 20 will go a little bit further without getting into the 21 details, but, you know, Vernie Kuglin studied this big, 22 big book known as the Internal Revenue Code. She read it. 23 Now, she reaches a conclusion about that. She is going to 24 get up there and tell you what she read and studied. Now, 25 my question to you is, if you listen to her testimony and VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 199 1 reach the conclusion that she really believed this, right 2 or wrong, will you give her testimony credence? Will you 3 consider her testimony in making the decision that you do 4 in this particular case? Anybody that can't do that? 5 That's all I'm asking for. 6 Nothing further, Your Honor. 7 THE COURT: All right. If you'll fill out your 8 strike sheets and pass them up, or at least fold one over 9 and pass it up. 10 (Strike sheets were handed to the judge.) 11 THE COURT: You may come to side bar. 12 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 13 bench.) 14 THE COURT: All right. The government struck 15 one person, Lauren Smith, in seat 13. The defense struck 16 four. Defense struck Jurors Phillip Smith, Rose 17 Saulsbury, Freida Straughter and Ms. Stewart, the 18 attorney. So any objections? 19 MR. MURPHY: No, sir. 20 MR. BECRAFT: No, sir, Your Honor. 21 (The following proceedings were had in open 22 court.) 23 THE COURT: All right. I hope you're not 24 disappointed if you're excused. We're going to let Mr. 25 Smith go, Lauren Smith, thanks very much. We're going to VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 200 1 let Ms. Stewart go. Thank you for being here, Ms. 2 Stewart. And, Ms. Saulsberry, we're going to let you be 3 excused and, Ms. Straughter, we're going to let you be 4 excused and Mr. Phillip Smith. So we have part of the 5 rest of the panel. I'm going to ask Mr. Shaneyfelt to go 6 to seat number eight because actually that's the first -- 7 that's the next regular juror seat, and then Ms. Stidham 8 will go to seat number nine and Mr. Inderbitzen to seat 9 number ten. Those are actually permanent seats. We're 10 going to call five more jurors to take seats -- the last 11 seat, seat seven and then the remaining 11, 12, 13, 14. 12 THE CLERK: Kim Stout. Sharon Smith. Joseph 13 Schingle. Cynthia Street. George Stewart. 14 THE COURT: Ms. Stout, how are you doing? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm doing fine. Thank you. 16 THE COURT: All right. What part of the city 17 or the district do you live in? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I live in Cordova. 19 THE COURT: What is your educational 20 background? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: College graduate. 22 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 23 your employer? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm at home right now. 25 THE COURT: Okay. Are you married? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 201 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I am. 2 THE COURT: Your husband's name and his 3 occupation? 4 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: His name is Eric Stout, and 5 he's an electrician. 6 THE COURT: Do you have children? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I do. 8 THE COURT: And tell me -- 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Two. I'm sorry, three of 10 my own and two step. 11 THE COURT: Okay. All right. It must be a new 12 one? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It is. He's five. 14 THE COURT: Fairly new? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Fairly new. 16 THE COURT: All right. Do you know of any 17 reason that you could not serve on this jury and be fair 18 and impartial? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I do not. 20 THE COURT: You've heard the discussion about 21 people's ability to wait and decide about a person's state 22 of mind, that is what they believed and didn't believe. 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Uh-huh. 24 THE COURT: And some people have found that 25 difficult to do. Can you do that? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 202 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I can. 2 THE COURT: If you would hand that back to Mr. 3 George Stewart who is right behind you. Mr. Stewart, how 4 are you today? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm doing pretty good. And 6 you, sir? 7 THE COURT: I'm fine. 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Great. 9 THE COURT: What part of the district or city 10 are you from? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I live in north Memphis. 12 THE COURT: What is your educational 13 background? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have a bachelor of 15 science degree from the University of Memphis and a 16 medical technology degree from the University of 17 Tennessee. 18 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 19 your employer? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm a medical technologist 21 with Baptist Memorial Health Care. 22 THE COURT: And are you married? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, I'm not. 24 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 25 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 203 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. I can be fair and 2 impartial. 3 THE COURT: All right. I've asked everybody -- 4 lately, we're asking everybody that question to make sure 5 they haven't already made up their mind, it kind of 6 sounded like some folks had. Are you able to -- the key 7 question here is going to be -- probably, I never can be 8 sure, I will tell you at the end of the case what some of 9 those questions are, but it may be what Ms. Kuglin 10 thought, I mean what was in her mind, whether she had a 11 good faith belief about certain things, and that's just 12 going to obviously wait until the end of the case and then 13 you'll have to make a decision on that. But can you wait 14 on that and not jump to a conclusion in this case? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I can. 16 THE COURT: Okay. I'm going to ask you to hand 17 that to Ms. Street. Ms. Street, how are you? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm tired, sleepy and 19 stressed. 20 THE COURT: What do you think about me? At 21 least, you were out there resting, right? Not so bad. 22 I'm going to let you stand up so we can hear you okay. 23 You feeling all right, just tired? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Just tired and sleepy, I 25 been working 12 to 16 hours a day to keep your lights on. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 204 1 THE COURT: You work for MLG&W? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Right. 3 THE COURT: We will let you be excused if you 4 want to be. 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Please. 6 THE COURT: Come on around and talk to us. If 7 you have been working that much, we may need to let you 8 go. 9 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 10 bench.) 11 THE COURT: I know you're tired, so I thought 12 we better just come around here. What is your job at 13 MLG&W? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm a material handler. I 15 have to make sure all the crews get what they need when 16 they need it. 17 THE COURT: Okay. And I know they have been 18 working very long hours. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah, 20. Twelve straight 20 days, I think this is the 13th day. 21 THE COURT: It's the 13th day because my lights 22 were out until last night. My lights were out until last 23 night. 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Mine didn't come on until 25 Saturday. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 205 1 THE COURT: They have been working really long 2 hours, I would be hesitant to -- it might be hard for you 3 to concentrate and stay awake to do this. We appreciate 4 it, we're going to let you be excused. 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Thank you. 6 (The following proceedings were had in open 7 court.) 8 THE COURT: We're going to let Ms. Street be 9 excused. They have been working long, long hours. 10 All right. We're going to call a name to take 11 seat 13. 12 THE CLERK: Cynthia Sanders. 13 THE COURT: Hi, Ms. Sanders. How are you 14 doing? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm fine. 16 THE COURT: I'm going to ask you a couple of 17 questions. If you will stand, I'm going to ask you what 18 you part of the district or city are you from. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Kirby and Mt. Moriah. 20 THE COURT: And what is your educational 21 background? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: College. 23 THE COURT: What's your occupation and who is 24 your employer? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Car sales, Homer Skelton VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 206 1 Ford, Olive Branch. 2 THE COURT: Are you a sales person? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I am. 4 THE COURT: Okay. Is it cheaper in Mississippi 5 to buy a car? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Taxes are. 7 THE COURT: Taxes are less, okay. All right. 8 Well, are you married? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Separated. 10 THE COURT: What's his name and what didn't he 11 do -- what does he do? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, there are many names, 13 but his name is Booker Sanders, Jr., and he's a manager at 14 Firestone. 15 THE COURT: Do you have children? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Two. 17 THE COURT: Do you know of any reason that you 18 could not serve on this jury and be fair and impartial? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, none whatsoever. 20 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. 21 And is it Mr. Schingle? 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 23 THE COURT: How are you today? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Fine, thank you. 25 THE COURT: It has been awfully long, and I VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 207 1 apologize. 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It has. 3 THE COURT: It sort of depends on the answers 4 we get, you know. What part -- 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Cordova. 6 THE COURT: What? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Cordova. 8 THE COURT: What is your educational 9 background? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Two years of college. 11 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 12 your employer? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Retired. 14 THE COURT: What did you retire from? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: New York Life Insurance 16 Company. 17 THE COURT: How long have you been retired? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Eleven years. 19 THE COURT: How old are you? 20 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Seventy-three. 21 THE COURT: You know you're eligible to be 22 excused? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, yes. 24 THE COURT: Do you mind serving? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I love it. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 208 1 THE COURT: We would love to have you, I just 2 wanted to make sure you knew. Are you married? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 4 THE COURT: Your wife's name? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Verne Joan. 6 THE COURT: And her occupation? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Me. 8 THE COURT: Trying to keep you around. All 9 right. A lot of discussion here about people being able 10 to listen to the law, the theories in the case and not 11 just make up their mind based on the charges. And in our 12 system -- in a criminal law system, not civil side, we're 13 not talking about civil side, civil liability is not the 14 question here, there has to be the requisite state of mind 15 in order for someone to be subjected to criminal 16 liability, you know, totally different from the civil side 17 as you're aware of from your business in the past, I'm 18 sure. Can you do that in this case or are you starting 19 out with a couple of black marks already on the slate for 20 the defendant? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Clean slate. 22 THE COURT: All right. Well, then you don't 23 know of anything that would preclude you from being fair 24 and impartial in this case? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 209 1 THE COURT: If you will hand that to Ms. Sharon 2 Smith. Ms. Sharon Smith? 3 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 4 THE COURT: I have got so many Smiths, I have 5 to check and make sure I have got the right one. 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: That's right. 7 THE COURT: Okay. What part of the district or 8 city are you from? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Munford. 10 THE COURT: What is your educational 11 background? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have two years of 13 college. 14 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 15 your employer? 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I work for Lucite 17 International in customer service. 18 THE COURT: Are you married? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. My husband's name is 20 Tim. He is a mechanic at Lehman Roberts. And I have 21 three children. 22 THE COURT: Three children. Okay. Do you know 23 of any reason that you could not sit on this jury and be 24 fair and impartial? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I would like to VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 210 1 approach the bench. 2 THE COURT: Sure, come on around. 3 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 4 bench.) 5 THE COURT: Yes, sir. 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have family medical 7 issues. My dad is 76 years old, lives in Crump, 8 Tennessee. He has diabetes, and three months ago, he had 9 surgery and in the hospital to help the diabetes, it was 10 not successful, and they are taking off his foot today or 11 tomorrow. I'm not at the doctor's office today to find 12 out which day it is, but I don't think my focus can be up 13 here. 14 THE COURT: Sure. 15 MR. MURPHY: Judge, no objection. 16 THE COURT: Thanks for letting us know, and I'm 17 sorry we didn't get you let you go earlier. 18 (The following proceedings were had in open 19 court.) 20 THE COURT: We're going to let Ms. Smith be 21 excused, and call another name to take her place. I don't 22 usually do this, but I know how to do it. Neil Simpson. 23 Mr. Simpson, how are you doing today? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Very good, thank you. 25 THE COURT: Okay. This has taken a lot longer VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 211 1 than it sometimes takes. I suppose it's because of the 2 nature of the inquiry. 3 What part of the district or city do you live 4 in? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: East Memphis. 6 THE COURT: What is your educational 7 background? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: One year of college. 9 THE COURT: What is your occupation and who is 10 your employer? 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Retired, but -- retired 12 twice. MLGW, Methodist Hospital, back at MLGW. 13 THE COURT: You're not back there now? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: As a contract, under 15 contract. I have been working 14, 15 hours also. 16 THE COURT: You doing all right or do you -- 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I'm doing fine. 18 THE COURT: You're doing fine? 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 20 THE COURT: Okay. Are you married? 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 22 THE COURT: Your wife's name and her 23 occupation? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Marcie, home keeper, three 25 children. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 212 1 THE COURT: Three children? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Thirteen grandchildren. 3 THE COURT: Thirteen grandchildren, all right. 4 That's great. That's wonderful. 5 Do you know of any reason that you could not 6 sit on this jury and be fair and impartial? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No reason. 8 THE COURT: Okay. We had that fundamental 9 question about some folks saying they already basically 10 made up their mind, are you able to put yourself in that 11 category of people who are able to listen? 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir, have to hear all 13 the facts. 14 THE COURT: All right. Mr. Murphy. Thanks 15 very much. 16 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 17 MR. MURPHY: Yes, sir, Your Honor. This is 18 directed to the new jurors. Have any of y'all had any 19 problems with the IRS? Audits or anything like that? 20 THE COURT: We're going to have to give you the 21 mic, I'm sorry. Mrs. Parker has to write it all down. 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I had an audit years ago, 23 but it doesn't affect my ability. 24 MR. MURPHY: How was your experience with the 25 audit, good, bad? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 213 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Well, it was -- I owed the 2 money, so I had to pay it. 3 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Do you think they treated 4 you fairly? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah, it was fair. 6 MR. MURPHY: Thank you, sir. 7 Now, do y'all understand that you have got to 8 follow the law as the judge gives to it you? He's going 9 to tell you what the law is, that you have got to apply 10 it. Does anybody have any problem with that? Do y'all 11 have any problem with the fact that people are required to 12 pay income taxes, file tax returns, is that a problem? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 14 MR. MURPHY: See anything wrong with that? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 16 MR. MURPHY: All right. Is there anything you 17 haven't told us that you think we ought to know about? 18 You know -- I know a lot of times, we'll ask people 19 questions, and then later on somebody will raise their 20 hand, you know, and I just remembered, I had, you know, an 21 uncle in law enforcement that was, you know, years ago, 22 anything like that? Any family, friends work for IRS, 23 government, law enforcement? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have a sister-in-law that 25 works -- VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 214 1 THE COURT: The mic. 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: My sister-in-law works for 3 the IRS. 4 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Where does -- does she work 5 at the service center? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: On -- I believe it's over 7 of Holmes Road, I'm not sure. 8 MR. MURPHY: Okay. On Getwell? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Maybe that's it. 10 MR. MURPHY: Okay. The fact that you're a 11 juror in this case, have you -- if you have to vote one 12 way or the other, is it going to influence you because you 13 have a relative that works for IRS? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, definitely not. 15 MR. MURPHY: Okay. That's going to do it for 16 me, ladies and gentlemen. 17 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have one. 18 MR. MURPHY: Oh, yes, sir. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have a cousin that is 20 retired from the IRS, but it wouldn't have any effect on 21 any of this. 22 MR. MURPHY: Presumably a cousin you like? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Oh, yes. 24 MR. MURPHY: Okay. But you're not going to be 25 embarrassed if you vote one way or another? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 215 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Not at all. 2 MR. MURPHY: Okay. Thank you, sir. 3 MR. BECRAFT: Let me pose these questions to 4 our new people up here. Do any of you have any friends, 5 close family members, yourselves ever worked for the state 6 or federal government in any way, shape, manner or form? 7 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Just this state. 8 MR. BECRAFT: No, any state? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: My son is a judge in 10 Colorado. 11 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: County judge. 13 MR. BECRAFT: All right. Anybody else? 14 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I have two brothers that 15 are police officers. 16 MR. BECRAFT: Where would they be police 17 officers? 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: One of my brothers is a 19 police officer for the City of Memphis, and I have a 20 brother that is a security officer for the airport. 21 MR. BECRAFT: All right. Do you see them on a 22 frequent occasion? 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Just ever so often. 24 MR. BECRAFT: All right. If we had this trial 25 last through this weekend, as you finally walked out of VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 216 1 this courthouse, if you were picked as a juror, if you 2 didn't see them at any time in between, would your 3 relationship with them, would it be such that if you sat 4 in this case and made a certain decision and saw them this 5 weekend that you might have some problems with them? 6 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No, no. 7 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. So you can lay aside your 8 family connections with law enforcement and fairly and 9 impartially decide this case? 10 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I can. 11 MR. BECRAFT: Ms. Stout, did you say -- 12 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I used to work for the 13 city. 14 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I am no longer employed 16 with the city. I used to work as a firefighter paramedic. 17 MR. BECRAFT: All right. 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Okay. 19 MR. BECRAFT: How about, have any of you ever 20 been a witness in a case, sat on a jury, state or federal? 21 Okay. Let's quickly go through them here, the three of 22 you. 23 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I was on a jury, civil case 24 with one of the local TV stations. 25 MR. BECRAFT: Civil case, some years ago? VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 217 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: It has been about four 2 years ago. 3 MR. BECRAFT: Can you lay aside anything you 4 saw or learned then and come into this case and just 5 listen to the facts and the evidence here and take the 6 judge's instructions on the law and decide it without 7 being influenced by your past jury service? 8 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Sure. 9 MR. BECRAFT: I'm going to ask the same 10 question of you, sir. 11 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yeah, civil case, 12 automobile accident couple of three years ago. 13 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. And that wouldn't have any 14 influence on what you do here? 15 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Not at all. Mine was in 16 federal court in '68. It was tax evasion -- 17 MR. BECRAFT: It wouldn't have -- 18 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Tax evasion case, it 19 wouldn't have anything to do with this. 20 THE COURT: I'm not certain I heard that 21 answer. Are you saying that you sat -- 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: I sat on a case, it was a 23 tax evasion case in '68. 24 MR. BECRAFT: '68, okay. Well, was that here? 25 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 218 1 MR. BECRAFT: And y'all reached a verdict? 2 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 3 MR. BECRAFT: Now, here you are a second time 4 around sitting in a -- possibly sitting in another tax 5 evasion case. Will you promise if you're selected as a 6 juror that anything you remember about that case will not 7 have an effect upon your decision if you're sitting as a 8 juror here? 9 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, sir. 10 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. Is there anything -- you 11 know, here it is 5:00 o'clock, and I know y'all want to 12 get out of here, is there anything that anybody wants to 13 bring to our attention right now? We have asked a whole 14 bunch of questions, and I don't want to have to repeat 15 them. Just volunteer something, is there something you 16 need to tell us that we ought to know regarding your 17 ability to sit as jurors? 18 Yes, sir. 19 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: My son is an employee at 20 FedEx. 21 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. 22 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No problem. 23 MR. BECRAFT: You have never met her? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: No. 25 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 219 1 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: You asked about income tax, 2 I was a volunteer for our doing personal income taxes. 3 MR. BECRAFT: Did you ever study the income tax 4 laws? 5 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Just what they give -- it's 6 very basic for low and moderate income families. 7 MR. BECRAFT: Your knowledge about filling out 8 tax returns, you can lay that aside, and just for this 9 case, you can listen to Judge McCalla, you know, listen to 10 the facts and give -- take into consideration the law that 11 he instructs you on and then make a decision in the jury 12 room without being influenced by your prior experience? 13 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, ours was very simple, 14 yes. 15 MR. BECRAFT: Anything else? One final area I 16 want to cover. You've heard me describe Vernie Kuglin. 17 You know her station in life. She has got these beliefs 18 about taxes. She studied the law. Now, can I get a 19 promise out of y'all that y'all are going to listen to the 20 evidence fairly and not be prejudiced against her and not 21 hold anything against her and treat her like you would 22 anybody else, any other witness and treat her like you 23 would like to be treated as well? 24 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes. 25 MR. BECRAFT: Nothing further, Your Honor. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 220 1 THE COURT: You can fill out or at least turn 2 in a strike sheet and pass that up. 3 (Strike sheets were handed to the Judge.) 4 THE COURT: All right. Let me see counsel at 5 side bar. 6 (The following proceedings had at side-bar 7 bench.) 8 THE COURT: Okay. There were no strikes, so 9 what I'm going to do, though, is reseat them in the order 10 in which they're called. So our two alternates will be 11 Ms. Sanders and Mr. Stewart, and Ms. Stout will actually 12 move around to seat 11. That's the way we seat them 13 because they're always in the sequence in which they're 14 called, and then I think we will just stop and come back 15 tomorrow. But we will come back at 9:00. I want -- and 16 y'all can come on in about five till because we have 17 cancelled everything else, and we have got an 8:30, but 18 that will be over. It will be back there anyway. 19 (The following proceedings were had in open 20 court.) 21 THE COURT: Well, you're all accepted as 22 jurors, but I have to reseat you a little bit because we 23 always seat you in the order in which you were called or 24 seated for jury selection. It's not actually -- it's -- 25 in other words, we always put -- the person in seat seven VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 221 1 is the next juror. She is actually going to go to seat 2 11, and Mr. Stewart is going to actually stay where he is 3 and Ms. Sanders is going to move down. So it's a little 4 confusing. Ms. Sanders, we're going to evict you from 5 your seat, and we're going to move you down to seat number 6 seven, which is where Ms. Stout is sitting, and we're 7 going to have our two gentlemen in the middle, Mr. Simpson 8 and Mr. Schingle move over one seat, that is that way, and 9 Ms. Stout is our juror in seat number 11. Sounds sort of 10 mysterious, it is real important that we always do it the 11 same way, because it depends on who is going to be the 12 actual members of the jury and who may be the alternates. 13 This case is long enough -- I don't want anybody to get 14 confused, there's no way to know if the alternates will 15 end up serving, but our alternates in this case are Ms. 16 Sanders, she is our first alternate, and our second 17 alternate is Mr. Stewart, so you're the two alternates. 18 And then everybody else is expected to be the jury in the 19 case. You're the actual twelve jurors. It's not unusual 20 for us to have something -- hopefully, nothing happens, 21 but if somebody gets sick, this gives us the ability to 22 replace -- that juror has a personal emergency, then that 23 gives us an ability to keep going. 24 Now, that means that those of you who came and 25 didn't get to serve, this does qualify as your jury VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 222 1 service, and we do appreciate you being here, so I'm going 2 to let all of you go at this time, and thanks again very 3 much. Thank you. 4 Now, what we will have you do is come back 5 tomorrow at 8:30. You will come back to the jury room, 6 which is this room immediately to my left and to your 7 right. Mr. Tuggle is going to show you to the jury room 8 in just a moment. Just take a look before you leave -- so 9 you will know what is in there. There are two restrooms, 10 coffee pot and that sort of thing. There will be a snack 11 tomorrow, I hope. They're supposed to be here about 8:30, 12 and then we will start in here very close to 9:00 o'clock. 13 We will start with a set of brief instructions, fairly 14 brief instructions so you will get some idea again of what 15 the law is, and then we will go to opening statements, and 16 we will proceed with the first witness. So that's going 17 to be our sequence. Remember the places you're sitting in 18 now because when you come back tomorrow, you will probably 19 line up and come in in that order. Look at who is in 20 front of you. Of course, if you're -- the person who will 21 be in front will probably be Ms. Sanders tomorrow on the 22 first row. And then just remember the sequence that 23 everybody is in. 24 Now, seven things. Do not discuss the case 25 with anybody at all. That includes among yourselves. VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 223 1 That means when you go home this evening, don't talk about 2 the case. You know, oh, I'm on this interesting IRS case, 3 whatever you would say. Do not say that. Tell them, you 4 know, I'm on a criminal case in federal district court, I 5 can't talk about it now, but I'll be able to tell you 6 about it when the case is over. And the case will be 7 over, you know, Thursday or Friday and I'll tell you about 8 it when it is over. As to anybody who might approach you 9 to talk about the case, of course, report that promptly to 10 one of our court security officers, a member of my staff 11 or directly to me. It is inappropriate for anybody to 12 talk with you about it, and we'll take the appropriate 13 steps. The fourth thing is that you'll want to avoid the 14 lawyers and the parties in the case and, of course, don't 15 speak to them at all. Now, in that regard always be sure 16 and wear your juror tag where it's visible. They're 17 probably going to remember you, but that's a real easy 18 thing for them to see. And that helps us all, all the 19 people in the building know that you're a juror. The 20 fifth thing is that you do know it is a 26 U. S. Code 21 Section 7201 case, do not go home and get on your computer 22 and look up information about that. It is frankly pretty 23 easy nowadays, and we just remind you not to do any 24 investigation. Don't make any inquiry. Don't try to 25 research it in any way. The next thing is, of course, if VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 224 1 there is anything in the newspaper about it, probably 2 won't be, I mean, after all, but if there happened to be, 3 do not read it to check it out. And, of course, if 4 there's anything on television or radio, but, of course, 5 probably more central, if there's something about tax 6 evasion cases or something about things like that, while 7 you wouldn't be researching that, it would be an 8 inappropriate thing to do too. Don't do anything that 9 would provide you with information that might influence 10 you. And the seventh thing is keep an open mind until you 11 have heard all the evidence in the case, the final 12 arguments of counsel, the final instructions on the law, 13 gone to the jury room, deliberated among yourselves and 14 then make up your mind, and that's going to be about four 15 days from now. 16 Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to ask you to 17 be excused. Mr. Tuggle is going to show you out that way, 18 and we will see you in -- be back there at 8:30 tomorrow 19 morning, we will start in here at 9:00 o'clock. 20 (Jury out at 5:00 p.m.) 21 THE COURT: Gentlemen, I think that's -- 22 anything else we need to take up at this time? 23 MR. MURPHY: Not from the government, Your 24 Honor. 25 THE COURT: From the defense? I want to make VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 225 1 sure that I have got down the -- the defense position 2 exactly, because you want a statement of your theory. And 3 Mr. Murphy, have you got a point on that, at all? 4 MR. MURPHY: Judge, I think they're entitled to 5 state their theory. 6 THE COURT: Oh, they are, I agree, I mean I 7 didn't know if you had -- 8 MR. MURPHY: No, I don't have an objection to 9 it. 10 THE COURT: Let me make sure I have got the 11 exact theory statement -- 12 MR. BECRAFT: Your Honor, I haven't articulated 13 a, quote, theory of defense. The only thing I really need 14 is, you know, legal points regarding my jury instructions, 15 and that has already been submitted. You know, there 16 might be one or two legal points that I want to bring up, 17 you know, as things develop, but I don't necessarily 18 need -- and I think it is something I can easily take up 19 in opening and closing stating our position. 20 THE COURT: Well, I know you asked to be able 21 to state your theory, and some people have me also insert 22 the theory in the instructions, and if you want me to do 23 that, you just have -- and you don't have to -- 24 MR. BECRAFT: Yeah. 25 THE COURT: -- but if you actually want it VOIR DIRE OF THE JURY 226 1 typed up and written and put in there, then somebody get 2 me a typed version and make sure it is reasonably short. 3 MR. BECRAFT: Okay. 4 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. 5 THE CLERK: All rise. 6 (Court adjourned at 5:02 p.m.) 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25