« Ind. Decisions - Temporary order OKs in-state shipping | Main | Ind. Decisions - Courts of Appeals decides two insurance coverage cases today »

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Ind. Law - How in the modern media age can a notorious defendant accused of a heinous crime get a constitutionally fair trial?

"How in the modern media age can a notorious defendant accused of a heinous crime get a constitutionally fair trial?" That is the question posed in this feature story today by Maureen Hayden in the Evansville Courier& Press. Some quotes:

The dilemma? How in the modern media age can a notorious defendant accused of a heinous crime get a constitutionally fair trial? The answer, it turns out, may be rooted in events that occurred in the Evansville area 50 years ago this month, when a confessed serial killer, nicknamed "Mad Dog" by the media, went on trial amid a frenzy of publicity. * * *

For three weeks in November 1955, prosecutors and defense attorneys waded through a jury pool of more than 480 people to come up with 12 jurors to decide the fate of Evansville pipefitter Leslie Irvin.

Irvin, a suspect in a string in deaths that terrorized the Tri-State, was on trial for the Dec. 23, 1954, killing of an Evansville gas station attendant, 29-year-old Whitney Wesley Kerr. Most of the jury, under questioning by lawyers, confessed their belief in Irvin's guilt before opening arguments even began. Their guilty verdict, which led to a death sentence for Irvin, would be overturned six years later by the U.S. Supreme Court.

That ruling, cited by the Indiana Supreme Court last year in its decision to overturn the Spencer County murder conviction and death sentence of Roy Lee Ward, was precedent-setting.

The nation's top justices - after scouring stories published in The Evansville Courier and other area newspapers - overturned Irvin's conviction. In doing so, they came up with a "fair trial" standard that remains the law of the land today. The justices found that the jurors' minds "were saturated" by media coverage, orchestrated in part by police and prosecutors to convince the community of Irvin's guilt.

It was the first time a murder conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court because of pretrial publicity. But it wasn't the last. * * *

Irvin's court-appointed lawyers - Evansville attorneys Ted Lockyear Jr. and James Lopp Sr. - succeeded in getting Irvin's trial moved out of Evansville. But the trial only went as far as Gibson County - not far enough from the media saturation of the case, the U.S. Supreme Court later ruled.

It was during the closing arguments that Gibson County prosecutor Loren McGregor branded Irvin a "Mad Dog Killer." The media quickly picked up the label and it stuck. Irvin's infamy grew even larger after his first conviction, when, in January 1956, he broke out of the Gibson County jail and disappeared into a snowstorm. The "Mad Dog" killer, facing the electric chair, became the object of a nationwide manhunt for 22 days, until he was tracked down by the FBI in a San Francisco pawnshop. Irvin later told Courier reporter Joe Aaron he broke out by fashioning jail-door keys from paperback novel covers, tin foil and glue.

Don't miss this, it is a great read.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 29, 2005 08:11 AM
Posted to Indiana Law