Will Higher Education Help Braunstein Trial Jurors?

A jury has been selected in the trial of Peter Braustein, the journalist suspected of kidnapping and sexually assaulting over many hours a former colleague. Braunstein was the subject of a month long manhunt that took investigators from NYC to Memphis, where he was captured at the University of Memphis.

According to the NY Post, the jury is made up of seven men and five women. Nine have post-graduate degrees; there's a female lawyer, female doctor, and "female director at a major insurance room." Other professionals are an architect, hedge-fund analyst and two i-bankers. We're guessing that the highly educated jurors are needed to understand the variety mental issues as well as Braunstein's professional background and aspirations to be famous. The Post says that the defense strategy is to show that Braunstein's "paranoid schizophrenia and other mental defects made his acts compulsive, rather than intentional." Okay, but if we were on the jury, we'd have to wonder about dressing as a firefighter to gain entry and going on the lam.

Food for thought: The judge warned the jury the trial could last until June. And last week, the Tennessee police officer who arrested Braunstein testified about his confrontation: Officer James B. Johnson said that he was acting on a tip from a woman who thought she saw Braunstein after seeing him on America's Most Wanted.