Hundreds of potential jurors met James “Whitey” Bulger in the U.S. District Court in Boston Tuesday, marking the official start of the process to select 18 jurors out of 675 candidates for Bulger’s upcoming trial.
Bulger, 83, greeted the prospective jurors and said “good morning” and “good afternoon” during two different sessions of 225 people each on Tuesday.
A third session of 225 potential jurors will come to the courthouse Wednesday to hear instructions from Judge Denise Casper and to fill out a questionnaire designed to ensure there are no conflicts of interest.
“Both parties have the right to a jury that is fair and impartial, one that is not biased or partial one way or another,” Casper said to jurors. “That is, both parties are entitled to a jury that does not have its mind made up one way or another.”
Casper said jurors should not watch media coverage of the case, discuss it with anyone, and they should make their decisions solely based on the evidence presented in court.
“The jury selection process that we are about to begin is to ensure fairness and impartiality at all ends,” she said.
Bulger is on trial for federal racketeering and 19 murders he allegedly committed during the 1970s and 1980s. He was the leader of the notorious Winter Hill Gang, and in June 2011, he was caught after a prolonged manhunt in Santa Monica, Calif.
Casper approved the use of Bulger’s Federal Bureau of Investigation informant file as evidence in the trial on Monday, which contains more than 700 pages of documents of Bulger’s role as an informant for the FBI.
Bulger’s lawyers deny that he was an informant and originally planned to use his claim that he received immunity from a federal prosecutor. Casper rejected that request stating that the immunity agreement was not a defense for the crimes he committed.
Casper said the court will not release names of the jurors until several days after the verdict and they will be referred to by numbers instead of names throughout the length of the trial, which is expected to last several months.
The trial is scheduled to begin on Monday with juror selection set to be completed by Friday.
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