By Andy Brack | So now come some members of the generally milquetoast South Carolina media who are pawing and whining about a state trial judge. They complain he’s keeping them from hearing 911 phone calls or seeing graphic photos of the Emanuel AME Church shooting that left nine dead.
Ninth Circuit Judge J.C. Nicholson should stand his ground and keep a gag order in place so images and sounds don’t spread throughout the world in an Internet flash. If they become public, that’s what will happen in about two seconds. Almost as fast: More pain and horror for the victims’ families and the Charleston community.
These images and sounds eventually will be heard — during a trial. Until then, the court, prosecutors and defense lawyers should insist they remain private to keep from inflaming public opinion.
Why? First, it’s the right thing to do. As healing continues, it is not time to pour salt on fresh wounds, despite any moaning by self-important editors and reporters about their rights to have the information.
Second, the media zealots who want the information to be released are conveniently forgetting to tell the full story. Yes, they have a pretty good argument that they have a constitutional right to get access to photos or tapes of phone calls.
But in a rush to sell more newspapers or grab more Internet eyeballs, they’re not sharing the other side. They seem to forget that in American jurisprudence, anyone who is accused of a crime has a right to a fair trial — no matter how much people may not like that for one reason or another.
If these photos or phone calls from the Emanuel church shooting scene hit the Internet because of a media more interested in their own bottom line than in doing what is best for the city and state, then there’s almost no guarantee potential jurors won’t be prejudiced against the accused shooter.
Even worse, think about what hate groups would do with these pictures or sounds. Home-grown haters would use them to brag about their impact and try to recruit more haters. Even worse are overseas terrorists who hate the United States — they would use them to promote anti-Americanism to recruit more haters.
So this is where a judge comes in. In our society, judges have a heavy responsibility to balance rights of the media with the rights of the accused. Judges must ensure trials don’t become circuses. They can do things during a trial, such as sequestering jurors or having strong voir dire processes (interviews) with potential jurors to make sure they’ll be fair. But those things are months away. There’s a duty now to keep from tainting people with information and images that could be highly prejudicial.
Fortunately, there’s a U.S. Supreme Court case that suggests what should happen. In a 1966 opinion involving the 1954 murder conviction of Ohio Dr. Sam Sheppard, the court held 8-1 to return the case to a lower court and release the doctor unless he was charged again in a reasonable time.
In the opinion, the court found publicity about the case created a “carnival atmosphere.” The high court noted the state judge could have done some things to control the media, such as insulating witnesses or curbing the “release of leads, information and gossip to the press by police officers, witnesses, and counsel for both sides.”
Ultimately, the trial judge “did not fulfill his duty to protect Sheppard from the inherently prejudicial publicity which saturated the community and to control disruptive influences in the courtroom.”
See the parallel? And that was almost 50 years ago when there were three national networks and no cable, Internet or smartphones. Since then, media have oozed into every corner of our lives. To suggest that it will be less pervasive today is simply laughable.
Today’s media that are trying to get any bloody photos or 911 tapes need to stop being petulant, spoiled brats. They need to remember the tag line for The New York Times is “All the news that’s fit to print.” The operative word is “fit.” Right now, this information isn’t fit to be printed just because salacious media want it.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!