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United States v. Ghailani:

Preliminary Remarks to Venire

Hon. Lewis A. Kaplan

Southern District of New York

September 23, 2010

The following text was prepared by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the

Southern District of New York to address prospective jurors selected for the 

prosecution of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani for participation in the 1998 bombings

of the American embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United States v. Ghailani, No. 1:98-cr-1023-9 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 21, 1998). Ghailani was a fugitive until 

2004, when he was captured and held by the CIA. He was transferred to Guantánamo Bay in 2006 and to the Southern District of New York for prosecution in

2009.

Preliminary Remarks to Venire

Good morning, everybody. I m Judge Lewis Kaplan. We are about to begin the

process of selecting a jury for a criminal case, and I m going to describe the

process to you briefly and tell you just a little about the case. The process is a

little different from the one we normally use.

The first step in the process is going to occur today, this morning. In a few

minutes, after you ve been sworn, you re going to be given questionnaires to fill

out. It s important that you be truthful and accurate in answering the questions on 

the questionnaires, because they re going to be important in selecting the jury. When you re done, the questionnaires will be collected, and you will be done for

the day. You can go home.

Some of you are going to be asked to return for the second phase of jury selection which will involve oral questioning that many of you are probably familiar with. That s going to start on September 29. It may continue on the 30th and

possibly for another day or so. Later today you ll get instructions about how

you re going to find out whether you re going to need to come back for oral

questioning and exactly on which date and at what time you should come.

Once the second phase, the oral questioning, is completed, a number of you

will be asked to return for the final step in jury selection and some of those who

will come back at the third phase will be selected to serve on the jury. We re not

a hundred percent certain of the date, but it s very likely to be Monday, October

4th.

Now, the second thing I need to do is to tell you a little bit about this case. As 

I said to you at the outset, this is a criminal case. It s brought by the United

States. The defendant is a man named Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. Mr. Ghailani is

charged with various crimes arising out of the bombing of the United States embassies in Africa a number of years ago. Mr. Ghailani denies the charges against

him. As in all criminal cases, he is presumed innocent and that presumption stays 
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with him throughout the case, unless and until the government proves that he is

guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. He doesn t have to prove that he s innocent.

It is quite likely there is going to be press coverage in this case. There has

been some already. I instruct you that you are not to read, watch, or listen to anything having to do with this case from this moment onward. You are not to discuss it among yourselves. You re not to discuss it with family, friends, or anyone 

else. You re not to do any research about the case or about anybody who is involved in it. That includes Google; it includes internet searches. No Googling, no 

Tweeting, none of that stuff.

Finally, I d like to explain to you that your privacy can and will be protected, 

even in a case in which there will be publicity, which is quite likely here. Some 

of you may have heard about jurors being sequestered, especially in the old days

when people got called for jury duty and wound up on a case: they got sent to

hotels with guards every night until the case was over. We don t intend to do

that. That s mainly a historical artifact. Those of you who serve on the jury in 

this case will go home every night. However, the names and addresses and other

identifying information about jurors, including their places of employment, will

not be disclosed to anyone except the chief jury clerk who will send each juror

his or her check for serving. This is to insure the privacy of the jurors, to make

sure it s preserved and to make sure that they are not contacted by the press or

anybody else who may want to discuss the case with them.

Now, as you re going to learn in a few minutes, the questionnaires that you

fill out will not have your names on them. Each of you has a number assigned to

you and that number will go on the questionnaire. You ll put it on there instead

of writing your name. The names of the jurors in this case will not be known to

the lawyers, the witnesses, or the parties, or even to me. Selecting an anonymous

jury like this is not unusual. It s been done in many cases in federal courts. Anonymity deters curiosity and protects the privacy of those selected to serve on the 

jury. In addition, once the jury is picked for this case, the jurors will be picked up 

every morning by deputy United States marshals at one or more convenient meeting places around the city, or possibly even outside the city, and driven from

those pickup points right into the courthouse.

While the jurors are in the courthouse, they ll remain with the marshals. They ll have their coffee breaks and their meals together. The Court will provide 

a light breakfast, coffee, other refreshments, and lunch every day; I guess I

should say, at no charge. I think that s right. I m sure. In the evening the jurors

will be driven from the courthouse by the marshals to one or more convenient

dropoff points from which the jurors will then make their own ways home. The 

locations of the morning pickup places and the evening dropoff places will not be 

disclosed publicly. They re likely to change during the course of the trial.

And so that s the way this is going to unfold. Three phases of jury selection;

and for those persons who are ultimately selected, their privacy will be retained

and they will be anonymous to the outside world and indeed even to court personnel except for one person who will keep juror identity information in a vault.

So that s my little story for you this morning. You ll get the questionnaires in 

a few minutes. Most of you I will never see again, but I thank you in advance for

your help and cooperation. I m sure that down the road I will see some of you
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once more at least. So be well and thanks again. And if there are any members of

the press in here? No? Good. Okay. Thank you.