Ryder Guilty

#1
not sure if anyone cares

winona ryder found guilty in court in la for theft and vandalism

one thing that interests me here and please any lawyers chime on in

one of the jurors was guber an ex executive of sony enterntainment when she did 3 movies for sony..dont ya think thats a conflict of interest of some sort

AOL: AOL News: Ryder Guilty of Grand Theft, Vandalism
 
Last edited:
#2
If that is true it is definitely a no-no, but it depends on when he was an exec there, what if any his role was etc.

On the other hand, I know Mark Geragos, and he is an EXCELLENT defense atty so i would find it hard that he would allow this person on the jury.
 

pjorourke

Thinks he's Caesar's Wife
#3
I read somewhere that the judge interviewed Gruber and decided he was okay. He was the head of the Sony studio, but didn't know Ryder that well.
 
#7
I find it all kind of odd... I wonder if she purposely foresaw and planned to do it and get caught. And if so what her reasons were.... I would not find it too far fetched in her case that she actually wanted to get caught, perhaps just for the experience of going to court for real and maybe jail. maybe to improve her career or kill it. Or maybe she just got caught up in the thrill of trying to steal things and didn't think through it. But she's smart so I tend to think she saw/wanted all this coming, for some reason.
 
#8
Regarding Guber, a judge has tremendous discretion in how he conducts the trial so it's not necessarily surprising that Guber was selected. Guber's previous position would not immediately disqualify him since he no longer works at Sony and the Winona case concerned an unrelated matter. The decision would really turn on whether or not Guber could remain impartial.

Normally, during jury selection, each side has a limited number of peremptory challenges which they can use to disqualify jurors that they feel would be harmful to their case and for other reasons. A process called voir dire takes place during which prospective jurors are examined by the parties and the judge. Often, the two sides squabble over whether someone should be disqualified for "cause" (e.g. - bias, relationship to the case, etc.) so they don't have to waste a peremptory on that prospective juror. The judge generally acts like a referee in the middle of the two parties and is more hesitant to excuse jurors for cause. Ultimately, the judge decides whether to accept an argument being made by one side or the other to excuse a juror for cause. Most judges would prefer to see a party use a peremptory challenge to disqualify a juror instead of excusing a juror for cause since the sooner the two sides use up their peremptories, the sooner the jury can get impaneled and the judge can get on with the case.

During voir dire, Guber was probably questioned about his ability to remain impartial and apparently his answers satisfied the judge. Each side could still have exercised a peremptory challenge to disqualify him (assuming they still had any), but they probably were saving them for more damaging potential jurors.

Jouer
pas francais
 
Last edited:
Top