Two potential jurors, a man who listens to National Public Radio and a retired Oviedo woman, were asked by defense attorney Mark O’Mara:
Would you have a problem reaching a verdict that might be unpopular?
No, said the man, not “as long as my anonymity is preserved.”
And if it is not?
“I would be afraid that it might anger strangers,” the man answered.
The woman asked a series of questions of her own when defense attorney Don West raised that possibility with her.
Would someone follow her? Would people attack her?
She was not overly concerned, she said. Jurors in the past have served in high-profile cases without incident.
Both she and the man eventually said they would be able to render a fair verdict.
If they wind up on the jury, they should prepare to be outed. Last week Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson signed an order that will unseal their names, should they be picked, as soon as the trial ends.
She made that decision after lawyers for more than a dozen news organizations — including the Orlando Sentinel, The New York Times and CNN — argued that keeping jurors’ names permanently secret is not allowed under Florida law.
In all, 11 prospective jurors were questioned by attorneys in the Zimmerman case Tuesday. The day before, attorneys had talked with four.
They have selected none. So far, they’ve only questioned prospective panel members about one narrow subject area — what they’ve learned about the case from news reports, the Internet, friends and family.
One woman, a member of a black congregation in Sanford, said her only source of information had been her church. A tiny woman — a business major at a Central Florida college — said her single source had been Facebook.
