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Sunday, September 16, 2007

Courts - In Connecticut: Furor Over Presentence Story About Jurors

Martha Nell of the ABA Journal had a really interesting story Friday about a front-page story in the Connecticut Post naming and detailing jurors in a high-profile case. Some quotes from the ABA story:

An unusual front-page newspaper article about jurors selected, after four months of questioning, to determine the sentence in a high-profile death-penalty case has caused a furor.

The prosecutor, defense counsel, at least some jurors, and journalism experts are among those questioning the Connecticut Post's judgment in printing the article, according to Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute, a Florida journalism think tank.

The Sunday article [ILB - be sure to check this out], which is linked by the Poynter Institute site, names jurors and details where they live and work. After Judge Robert Devlin Jr. told them of the article, one juror and one alternate, concerned about their safety, asked to be excused. Devlin agreed, but denied a mistrial request, the Post reported Monday.

A jury was selected only to sentence defendant Russell Peeler Jr. because a previous jury convicted him but deadlocked on the penalty.

The Sunday article ran after the jury was seated but before the Bridgeport, Conn., case—in which an 8-year-old boy and his mother were murdered as the boy about to testify in a case over the killing of his mother's boyfriend—was concluded. Public outrage over the murders resulted in state legislation to better protect witnesses, another Post article notes.

Juror identities generally are public, but increasingly courts allow anonymity, Tompkins writes. In an ongoing trial of reputed Chicago organized crime family members, for instance, juror names have been kept secret, as an ABAJournal.com post notes.

Some readers may recall this ILB from July 10, 2006, on the "South Bend Osco Triple Murder Trial," but no jurors are named in the stories, even in the "profile" of Juror #12.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 16, 2007 05:53 PM
Posted to Courts in general