Jury selection is underway in Fall River in the case of Aaron Hernandez, who's charged in the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd.
As in the case of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Hernandez case raises concerns about whether or not an impartial jury can be selected, given the publicity surrounding the crimes the former New England Patriots tight end is accused of committing.
Harvard Law School Professor Ronald Sullivan Jr. says that this pre-trial publicity cannot be avoided, given the recent advancements in information technology. But he says the jurors do not have to be unaware of the case in order to render an impartial verdict.
"The juror does not have to be wholly ignorant of... the facts of the case. That's almost impossible. In certain cases, neither side probably wants a juror who's so disconnected from the world that they've heard absolutely nothing about these huge cases. But rather, the question is -- not withstanding that you've heard something about the case -- 'can you nonetheless follow the judge's instructions and render an impartial verdict?'" said Sullivan.
Professor Sullivan adds that rendering an impartial verdict will likely be an easier task for jurors in the Hernandez case than those in the Tsarnaev case.
You can listen to the full interview above.
