Earlier this month, “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli was convicted of three counts of fraud in a Manhattan federal court, to the general amusement of well, everyone. After hiking the price of life-saving drugs, the man wasn’t much beloved by the jurors in his trial, who called him, among other things, “evil” and a “snake.”
In fact, the general public opinion of Shkreli was so low after such shenanigans as trashing brunch, backing Donald Trump’s candidacy for President, taunting reporters about his (incorrectly) self-assumed untouchability, and leaking the $2 million Wu-Tang Clan album he bought in 2015 while talking about his trial — despite being ordered not to by a judge — that more than 200 jurors were dismissed before the trial even started.
It was this last offense that was most egregious to more than one of the dismissed jurors. In a transcript of the jury selection process posted by Harper’s, at least two of the potential jurors specifically cited Once Upon A Time In Shaolin as their reason for maintaining his guilt, for instance, Juror No. 59:
THE COURT: All right. I’m going to excuse you. Juror Number 59, come on up.
JUROR NO. 59: Your Honor, totally he is guilty and in no way can I let him slide out of anything because —
THE COURT: Okay. Is that your attitude toward anyone charged with a crime who has not been proven guilty?
JUROR NO. 59: It’s my attitude toward his entire demeanor, what he has done to people.
THE COURT: All right. We are going to excuse you, sir.
JUROR NO. 59: And he disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan.
Not to be outdone, Juror No. 144 provided their thoughts on the matter:
THE COURT: Well, I’m going to excuse you. Juror Number 144, tell us what you have heard.
JUROR NO. 144: I heard through the news of how the defendant changed the price of a pill by up-selling it. I heard he bought an album from the Wu-Tang Clan for a million dollars.
THE COURT: The question is, have you heard anything that would affect your ability to decide this case with an open mind. Can you do that?
JUROR NO. 144: I don’t think I can because he kind of looks like a dick.
These responses, and the resultant judgement against Shkreli despite these jurors’ dismissal, prove the age-old adage: “The Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothin’ to f*ck with.” Shkreli faces up to 45 years in prison.
