CNN says a woman writing a novel about  ‘predatory older men’ has been seated on the Harvey Weinstein jury. 

It one of the most high-profile cases in the US, and now the 12 jurors who will decide Harvey Weinstein’s fate have been selected. One of the jurors has been revealed to be a woman writing a novel about “predatory” older men and their relationships with younger women. 

“This is my biggest fear,” Weinstein’s lead defence attorney Donna Rotunno, told CNN, referring to what she believe cant be a fair and impartial jury panel, and one subject being tainted by juror No.11. 

And it’s this juror who is at the heart of why Weinstein’s legal team have filed a motion for a mistrial. 

The woman was not forthcoming about her upcoming book on the jury questionnaire, Weinstein’s team argued. 

Variety asks if Harvey Weinstein’s Jury selection strategy makes any sense. They say his defence teams strategy is simply to keep white women off the panel. 

Although it’s illegal to pick juror based or race or gender, the prosecutor Joan Illuzzi has accused the defence of using peremptory challenges to systematically exclude young white women. 

The defence denied the accusations citing other factors in each case – one being a woman who had worked as a model. 

Of the 12 jurors, two are white women. Both were seated after Weinstein’s team ran out of challenges. 

“It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that there would be a gender issue, and that the Weinstein team would be more inclined to removing women,” says Valerie Hans – a law professor who has studied juries. “I would be willing to bet they relied on empirical evidence from their research to exercise these peremptory challenges.”

Reuters reports the jury selection was bias, big data and likes. They say that when the potential jurors were selected, the lawyers already knew who had used the #MeToo hashtag on Twitter or those who have criticised victims of sexual harassment on Facebook. 

The intersection of big data capabilities and the prevalence of social media has changed the business of jury research in the US – which was once getting information from car bumper stickers or the appearance of a home.  

But now, consultants scour Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other social media platforms for hard-to-find comments or “likes” in discussion groups or even selfies of a juror wearing a potentially biased t-shirt. 

“This is a whole new generation of information then we had in the past,” said Jeffery Frederick, the director of Jury Research Services at the National Legal Research Group Inc.