Quotes from the jury selection process are absolute gold
Pharma-wanker Martin Shkreli was convicted earlier this month for three counts of fraud and conspiracy. He’s known and hated worldwide for increasing the cost of Daraprim – a drug used to treat HIV/Aids patients – by 5,000 per cent, as well as supporting a 400 per cent increase in price for the EpiPen.
If you want to bask in the flaming of the smug rat even more, Harpers has published parts of the transcript from the jury selection process. They report that over 200 potential jurors were dismissed, as they searched for people who could be totally impartial. Of course, that was always going to be a tough, painful gig.
Some jurors, the transcripts show, immediately voice their distrust – one describes him as a “snake”, another as “the face of corporate greed in America”. Others say they’re aware of his part in raising the price of pharmaceuticals, detailing their own experiences with a putrid healthcare system dickheads like Shkreli prop up. Another highlights another atrocity: “He disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan,” says juror 59.
Here are some moments from the jury selection transcript below: we applaud you jurors.
Juror 18: “Both of my parents are on prescriptions that have gone up over the past few months, so much that they can’t afford their drugs. I have several friends who have H.I.V. or AIDS who, again, can’t afford the prescription drugs that they were able to afford.”
Juror 52: “When I walked in here today I looked at him, and in my head, that’s a snake — not knowing who he was. I just walked in and looked right at him and that’s a snake.”
Juror 28: “I don’t like this person at all. I just can’t understand why he would be so stupid as to take an antibiotic which H.I.V. people need and jack it up five thousand percent. I would honestly, like, seriously like to go over there —“ (this hero gets cut off by the judge)
Juror 10: ”The only thing I’d be impartial about is what prison this guy goes to.”
Juror 125: “I’ve read extensively about Martin’s shameful past and his ripping off sick people and it hits close to me. I have a mother with epilepsy, a grandmother with Alzheimer’s, and a brother with multiple sclerosis. I think somebody that’s dealt in those things deserves to go to jail.”
Juror 144: “I don’t think I can because he kind of looks like a dick.”