Amercia's New Courtroom

This week I was lucky enough to speak with DNA expert, expert witness, and as he called himself on the radio show I co-host talking head Dr. Lawrence Kobilinsky.

Later in the day I got an email from Dr. Kobilinsky that contained this phrase:

"I think that we need to consider enacting legislation similar to that in the UK which bars media from discussing the details of a live case. Although I believe that it important to educate the public about our criminal justice system, there may be a cost associated with this mode of education. This is an important subject which needs further study. I believe in fairness in the justice system and a person's right to a trial of his peers in a courtroom, and not on an entertainment television show. Such programs have no legal limitations and can be inherently biased against any defendant." Potential jurors can be tainted by what they hear on TV programs. The judge and jury on a criminal trial will be concerned with justice for a defendant and balance in their perspective and will not be concerned about high viewer ratings and competition with other networks in the way that TV anchors are."

The Dr. makes a good point. The media has become America’s new courtroom. More and more the court of public opinion decides people’s guilt months or in some cases years before a defendant sees a jury. Where is this opinion formed? In the media of course.

High profile defendant’s virtually have no chance of encountering a jury that is in not some way biased or at least familiar with the intimate details of a case long before the summons for jury duty is even cut. More important they may have been exposed to and will consider evidence that may not even be allowed at trial due to pretrial motions.

A great example is the case against Casey Anthony. You can’t go fifteen minutes watching cable news without hearing about the murder case, the civil suit, what she had for lunch, or who she slept with before she was arrested. Tonight Nancy Grace is doing a special on all Casey's lovers. Why?

The remedy for this type of exposure used to be a motion for a change of venue. But the days of national cable news have made this moot. It doesn’t matter where you try Casey Anthony because wherever you go they have seen the same coverage as well.

You can even take this one step farther. There are shows like the ones on Court TV that at least try to remain objective. Then you have hosts like Nancy Grace who wish to prosecute a defendant in the media without the benefit of that person being able to offer a defense.

Whatever your opinion of Casey Anthony I promise you more people are going to remember Nancy Grace crucifying “tot mom” more than anything Jose Baez has said regarding her innocence. Just for the fun of it try to remember as many Nancy Grace quotes on this case as you can and then try to remember some Jose Baez quotes. I promise you Nancy will win hands down.

Why should we care if Casey Anthony, Drew Peterson, Melissa Hukaby, or any other high profile Defendant gets a fair trial? Because next week through no fault of your own there could be circumstantial evidence linking you to a murder and the last thing you need is Nancy Grace telling the entire country what a bastard you are. There is no way to defend against that.

Perhaps we would all be better served if high profile media went back to reporting the news instead of trying to create it.