News and stories about crimes and criminal proceedings have always drawn the attention of audiences. Hangings used to be public spectacles in the 19th. One story by the media has the potential to danger the defendant’s rights, confessions, or stories about the confession that a defendant is said to have made which include even alluding to the fact that there may be a confession. Stories about the defendant’s performance on a test such as a polygraph, lie detector, or similar device and about the defendant’s refusal to take such a test. Stories about the defendant’s past criminal record or that describe the defendant as a former convict Stories that question the credibility of witnesses and that contain the personal feelings of witnesses about prosecutors
Police, victims, or even judges. Stories about the defendant’s character associates and or personality. Stories that tend to inflame the public mood against a defendant, stories that are published or broadcast before a trial that suggests implying or flatly declare that the defendant is guilty. How is it that jurors are aware of the media coverage of cases that they are on, what are the precautions and or steps taken. To make sure that they are not swayed in any way by the media coverage and or stories out and about involving the case? I mean the media is pretty quick to cover material and start jumping to conclusions so how is a jury selected that has not already been influenced?
How are the 6th amendment rights protected? Most trial judges and other judicial sources do not seem to perceive frequent major problems with prejudicial publicity. Impartial Juror: is one whose mind is free from the dominant influence of knowledge acquired outside the courtroom free from strong and deep impressions that close the mind. Trial level remedies for pre-trial publicity, Voir dire: each prospectus juror is questioned prior to being impaneled in an effort to discover bias: tell the truth. Change of venue: change of location of the trial under a different jurisdiction. Change of veniremen: the trial is not relocated rather a jury is brought in from another location. Continuation: when a trial is continued or a continuance is granted. Admonition: only using the evidence that is presented during the trial to make one’s decision
And sequestration: when the jurors are to stay and do everything together with the watchful eye of court guards. This ensures that no outside media influences the jurors. This can be extremely coastline for the judicial system since it becomes the burden of the system to provide accommodations for the jurors. A trial can be delayed until the publicity dies down. Some trial courts try to limit the publication of prejudicial information about a case by issuing court orders that restrict what the press may publish or what trial participants may say publicly about the case, 1976 Supreme Court case ruled press may not be prohibited from publishing information it ha legally obtained about a criminal case unless these conditions are met:
- Intense and pervasive publicity about the case is certain
- No other reasonable alternative is likely to mitigate the effects of the pretreat publicity
- The restrictive order will prevent prejudicial material from reaching the jurors
