Word: roraback
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Despite the tedium, the atmosphere was tense from the beginning. After Mrs. Huggins' attorney, Catherine Roraback, noticed a prospective juror trembling on the stand, she asked, "Are you afraid of my client?" The reply was a shaky "yes." Scores of veniremen, faced with the prospect of months away from their jobs and families, were swiftly excused simply because they stated that they had an opinion of the defendants' guilt. "These people aren't dumbbells," Mulvey commented. "They don't want to sit on this case...
Unlike McLucas' lawyer, Garry and, to a lesser extent, Roraback play up the involvement of the Panthers in the case, and the trial's political nature. Garry even takes every opportunity to remind the juror of the connection, introducing himself time and time again as, "representing Mr. Seale, co-founder and chairman of the Black Panther Party...
Thus Garry and Roraback have established the jurors' opinions of the Panthers as issues in the selection. Opinions of police and black people in general as well as acquaintance with parties involved in the case are also issues. Once the defense lawyers or the prosecution has ascertained that the juror is prejudiced, they either use one of their peremptory challenges, or convince Judge Mulvey that he should be excused...
...prosecuting attorneys seem to assume that a juror is "safe" unless something-if, for example, he is black-makes them sit up and take notice. As of last week, the state's attorney's office had used only 30 of its allowance of 60 peremptory challenges, while Garry and Roraback had used all but one of theirs...
Obviously a poor risk for Seale and Huggins.... A true undercover agent.... Yet although Garry and Roraback questioned him for almost an hour, this juror refused to admit that he had been exposed to any publicity, that he had any opinions whatsoever, that his various connections would prejudice him in any way. At last Garry was forced to use his last challenge to get rid of him. As he left the courtroom, the juror smirked at Seale as if to say, "You may have kept me off your jury but I sure did some damage in the process...