Ranging in age from 26 to 66, they come from Manhattan, the Bronx, and Westchester County. They are married, single, divorced, and widowed, with education ranging from high school to post-graduate degrees. The jurors include a bank teller, an art therapist, a legal secretary, a senior book editor, a nurse, a data entry clerk, an electric technician, a retired postal clerk, a social work supervisor, a construction manager, an accountant, an office clerk, and a salesman. Their hobbies include reading, chess, needlework, running, watching movies, and traveling abroad. Several have friends who are Muslim, or of Arab, Middle Eastern, or African background.
None speak Arabic or Swahili, but four speak Spanish and one speaks Hindi.
None have family working for the State Department and only a few have family who served in the military. On the issue of the death penalty, jurors were asked to rate their opinion on the death penalty on a scale from one to 10 with one being most strongly opposed. One circled 2, indicating more strongly against and another circled 10, indicating no problem. All but five were aware of the embassy bombings, but most did not follow closely the 1991 Gulf war that drove Iraq from Kuwait, the civil war in Somalia, or the bombing of the USS Cole. During the trial, the jurors must shield themselves from outside influences.