Interesting. He was less than truthful about his own occupation but still mentioned his family members in LE. The defence counsel either screwed up or was setting his client up for an appeal. Due to the latter possibility, the prosecution should have kept the guy off the jury.
“At that point, Alston failed to disclose that he had applied to the FBI, “completed all of the required interviews and employment examinations, and was waiting to hear from the agency,” Marshall wrote.
In fact, the reason Alston had been laid off was because someone from the FBI contacted a partner at the firm who, until then, had been unaware the process “had gone that far,” the order states.”
From the link above.
Furthermore, if I had been fired or laid off, and I was asked what my occupation was, I’d still give the same answer, because I’d consider that a question about my profession, not my employment status.