By : Aimee Green
https://muckrack.com/aimee-green
MAX train double murder defendant Jeremy Christian told a judge Tuesday that he will wear his blue jail uniform throughout jury selection and the trial that will follow.
Christian, 37, said he doesn’t want to put on a show for jurors by wearing regular clothes. He said he’s going to trial to tell the world his side of the story about the fatal stabbings of two men on the train.
>“If I wear (civilian) clothes, I’d be lying to the jury,” Christian said on the first day of what could be four or five days of jury selection. "… I don’t care how much time I spend in prison. … All I care about is the public gets to see and hear what happened on the train.”
Christian is charged with the first-degree murders of Ricky Best and Taliesin Namkai-Meche on a packed Green Line train on May 26, 2017. He also is charged with attempted first-degree murder for seriously wounding a third passenger, Micah Fletcher, by stabbing him in the neck and second-degree intimidation for allegedly launching into a hate-filled tirade against two teenage girls, one who was wearing a hijab.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Cheryl Albrecht told Christian that defendants typically don civilian clothes – a dress shirt, tie and sometimes a suit jacket for male defendants – while on trial. They have a right to do so to reduce any likelihood that jurors might brand them a criminal before hearing all the evidence.
“The concern is that jail clothing carries the stigma of guilt,” Albrecht said as she asked him about his choice of attire.
Christian said he understood and it is indeed his choice to move forward in what essentially are blue scrubs with “JAIL” stamped on the back.
Christian also shared his perspective on being charged and held in the case. “I understand that I’ve been held against my Eighth Amendment right against my will," he said. The Eighth Amendment protects people from cruel and unusual punishment.
Despite Christian’s choice, court officials took measures to obscure his ankle cuffs, which remained on throughout the day. A black tablecloth had been draped over the sides of the table where Christian sat, so jurors couldn’t see the shackles.
After the clothing discussion, potential jurors were called into the courtroom to be questioned by defense attorneys Greg Scholl and Dean Smith and prosecutors Jeff Howes and Don Rees.
The judge referred to the prospective jurors by a letter and a number to protect their privacy. The move is unusual but not without precedent in high-profile trials.
In all, 2,400 Multnomah County residents had been summoned to the downtown Portland courthouse earlier this month, and 682 responded in person to fill out a 22-page survey with 130 questions about their backgrounds and beliefs.
The lawyers interviewed a total of 12 people in two batches Tuesday, one with seven people and the other with five.
The lawyers asked if they wanted to serve on the jury, whether they could deal with very bloody photos and video and whether they’ve ever encountered a ranting person on public transportation and how they reacted. Other questions included how deeply they believed in free speech, if free speech isn’t acceptable in some circumstances and whether someone can injure someone else but not have committed a crime.
“Let’s talk about self-defense,” Howes, one of the prosecutors, said to one group of potential jurors. “If someone throws a Wiffle ball at you, are you allowed to pull out a .44 Magnum and blow their head off?”
They shook their heads no, in unison.
“It’s not proportionate,” Juror A25 said.
“It’s not reasonable,” A23 said.
Rees, the other prosecutor, asked the other batch of potential jurors if they believed there should be a ban on people wearing religious clothing.
“Does anyone have a problem with someone wearing religious garb in public?” he asked.
“No,” the group answered.
Scholl, one of the defense attorneys, asked the potential jurors if any of them had heard about Christian’s case before they were called to jury duty. Two answered that they were completely unaware of the case, while the others knew about it. Knowledge of the case wasn’t automatically grounds to remove people from consideration for trial.
Juror A16 said he’d seen news footage of Christian yelling in court and he’d come to the conclusion that Christian is racist. A16 also said it would be difficult to be an impartial juror during trial because he’s been called racially derogatory names at times in his life.
At the defense’s request, the judge excused A16 for cause.
One juror, A2, said she knew of Micah Fletcher because he grew up in her neighborhood and his siblings had been over to her house to play with her siblings. She added, though, that she didn’t think she had ever spoken directly to Fletcher. She remained in the jury pool.
Defense attorneys also were clearly gearing up to combat any preconceived notions that jurors might have about Christian or the events that unfolded on the train.
“Does saying something over and over again make it true?” Scholl asked one of the potential jurors.
“No,” he answered.
Scholl asked Juror A13: “Everybody knows he did it, and we’re going to kind of rubber stamp that through. That isn’t true, is it?”
“No,” she responded, adding that she would look at the evidence in the case
That woman also said she’s “a believer in people.”
>“I believe everybody is a good person at heart,” she said. “And everybody deserves a chance. And people aren’t born bad people. They don’t wake up in the morning and go out and decide ‘I’m going to do something horrible.’”
Jury selection is scheduled to continue throughout the week and conclude no later than Monday. Attorneys are still questioning people in the jury pool and have made no choices yet.
Opening statements are scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 28, and are expected to be followed by as many as five weeks of testimony, arguments and deliberations.
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/01/jeremy-christian-chooses-to-wear-jail-clothes-during-max-train-killings-trial.html