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It has been suggested that this article be merged with Court of public opinion. (Discuss) Proposed since June 2011.

Trial by media is a phrase popular in the late 20th century and early 21st century to describe the impact of television and newspaper coverage on a person's reputation by creating a widespread perception of guilt or innocence before, or after, a verdict in a court of law.

During high-publicity court cases, the media are often accused of provoking an atmosphere of public hysteria akin to a lynch mob which not only makes a fair trial nearly impossible but means that regardless of the result of the trial the accused will not be able to live the rest of their life without intense public scrutiny.

The counter-argument is that the mob mentality exists independently of the media which merely voices the opinions which the public already has.

Although a recently coined phrase, the idea that popular media can have a strong influence on the legal process goes back certainly to the advent of the printing press and probably much further. This is not including the use of a state controlled press to criminalize political opponents, but in its commonly understood meaning covers all occasions where the reputation of a person has been drastically affected by ostensibly non-political publications.

Often the coverage in the press can be said to reflect the views of the person in the street. However, more credibility is generally given to printed material than 'water cooler gossip'. The responsibility of the press to confirm reports and leaks about individuals being tried has come under increasing scrutiny and journalists are calling for higher standards. There was much debate over U.S President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial and prosecutor Kenneth Starr's investigation and how the media handled the trial by reporting commentary from lawyers which influenced public opinion.

History

20th century

Claudine Longet

Claudine Longet is a French woman arrested and charged with fatally shooting her boyfriend, Olympic skier Vladimir "Spider" Sabich at his Aspen, Colorado, home on 21 March 1976. At her trial Longet said the gun discharged accidentally. She was convicted of a lesser charge — misdemeanor criminal negligence — and sentenced to pay a small fine and spend 30 days in jail.

Sensationalist accounts of the trial reinforced Aspen's reputation as a drug-fuelled, amoral community (a perception already well established in America) to a global public. "Aspen," the Daily Mirror headline declared, after sentence was pronounced, "is the modern Sodom and Gomorrah." Longet, observed the News Of The World, following the verdict, "put Aspen on the world map as a town where anything could happen. People said that you could even get away with murder there."

Lindy Chamberlain

Between 1980 and 1982 Australian Lindy Chamberlain was the focus of a much-publicised trial in which she was convicted of murdering her infant daughter, Azaria. However, she was released in 1986 on new evidence showing that a dingo had in fact committed the act as was originally claimed by Chamberlain. The case has been considered a clear cut case of 'trial by media'.

The media reported forensic evidence later found to be faulty. However they failed to report relevant evidence from witnesses e.g. hearing Azaria cry when on the prosecution theory she would need to be already dead.

There was also a failure to publicise that for the prosecution theory of guilt to succeed Chamberlain was required to "within the space of 10 minutes: returned to the tent, persuading her son not to follow her, put on a pair of track suit pants, taken Azaria to the car, found a weapon and killed the child, allowed sufficient time for the child to die (not less than 2–3 minutes) hidden the body, cleaned up some of the blood, removed her tracksuit pants, obtained the baked beans for Aidan, returned to the tent, entered the tent and done whatever she did in order to leave blood splashes there, collected Aidan and returned to the barbeque".

The 1988 motion picture A Cry in the Dark depicted Chamberlain (played by Meryl Streep), caught in a "trial by media" which fed the public's, and subsequently the jury's false conviction of her. In the jury's final conviction Lindy Chamberlin was to have murdered her daughter Azaria Chamberlin, her sentence was life time in prison.

Ray Donovan

In 1987, former United States Secretary of Labor Ray Donovan and six other defendants were indicted by a grand jury for larceny and fraud. On May 25, 1987, he and the other defendants were acquitted, after which Donovan famously asked, "Which office do I go to get my reputation back?"

Debra Milke

Debra Milke (born March 10, 1964 in Berlin-Steglitz) is a German-born Arizona death row inmate who was convicted of the murder of her son Christopher in 1990. She was the first female to be sentenced to death in Arizona since 1932. Milke is being held at Arizona State Prison Complex - Perryville in Goodyear, Arizona. On March 14, 2013, Milke's conviction was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

After her conviction, she was widely reviled. "Mention her name and people will use the words "fry," "gas," "torture," "maim." the Phoenix New Times reported. "In each individual," poet Maya Angelou once wrote, "there is a good and a bad, an evil and a good." If Debbie orchestrated the killing of her only child, hers is an evil that surpasses understanding.

Richard Jewell

In 1996, security guard Richard Jewell who was initially hailed as a hero for spotting a suspicious backpack at the Centennial Olympic Park bombing was soon portrayed by the news media as the presumed culprit. On April 13, 2005, Jewell was exonerated completely when Eric Rudolph pled guilty to carrying out this bomb attack.

21st century

Chris Hurley

In 2004 Australian police officer 115 kg Senior Sargeant Chris Hurley was supervising a prisoner at a watchhouse. The prisoner had punched Hurley in the jaw when exiting the police vehicle and struggled to escape leading to missing a step into the watchhouse and both Hurley and the prisoner falling in. The prisoner died in the jail cell that day. An early media article gave unretracted allegations that the deceased's face looked like it was beaten beyond recognition even though this was later contradicted by medical evidence in the coroner's report (the only visible injury to the face was a small cut above an eye). The media construct suggested a racially motivated beating to death. The deceased was an indigenous Australian. However Hurley was working at in an aboriginal community after a series of postings where he voluntarily worked at aboriginal communities. His peers advised that he enjoyed assisting the aboriginal community and was well known for his work with aboriginal children., aboriginal activist Murrandoo Yanner advised that Hurley wasn't a racist and the Indigenous communities that he had worked in loved him, and he made contributions to the Federal Parliamentary Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs approximately a year before the incident complaining about failure to implement an aboriginal death in custody inquiry recommendation. The media downplayed the possibility that the death was caused by the fall even though all medical experts at the inquest allowed for the possibility and emphasised allegations of punching as a possible cause of death even though the Supreme Court of Appeal later noted that the medical evidence unequivocally rejected the alleged punching as a cause of death.

Hurley was investigated for causing the death. The Director of Public Prosecutions and the Criminal Misconduct Commission both investigated and found that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. The Director of Public Prosecutions stated publicly that the death was a tragic accident. Shortly after these decisions, an Australian national newspaper compared the situation to the death of African aboriginal Steve Biko in Pretoria prison, South Africa in 1977. Police claimed Biko died of a hunger strike in spite of massive head injuries suggesting otherwise. The journalist who authored the story, Tony Koch, won the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year award for relevant reports in The Australian newspaper and in particular the resulting effective contribution he made to the public outcry. In providing the award the judges commended his reporting as "courageous, relentless and effective". Apparently the media response was effective in catalysing a prosecution. The Beattie State Government used a unique prosecution method to launch a trial. A former head of the Director of Public Prosecutions commented that it put Beattie "under a cloud".

Likewise the state Police Union later released advertisements against the Beattie Queensland government, comparing the government to Robert Mugabe and his government.

More specifically the ad stated: "Zimbabwe is a good example of what could happen where politicians override the laws to suit themselves." This referred to the claim by the Union that governmental initiation of a review of the DPP decision amounted to political interference in the justice system.

Although Hurley was found not guilty in the resulting trial the media portrayed the trial as a miscarriage of justice.

Amanda Knox

Amanda Knox is an American woman who was originally convicted of the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Umbria, Italy in 2009. She served four years of a 26-year sentence before the murder conviction was overturned on October 3, 2011. However, on March 26, 2013, Knox's acquittal was overturned by the Italian Supreme Court.

Casey Anthony

Casey Marie Anthony is an American woman, who in 2011 was found not-guilty of first degree murder in the Death of Caylee Anthony her daughter in Orlando, Florida in 2008. Time magazine described the case as "the social media trial of the century".

After her acquittal, Anthony continued to face legal problems. Her bankruptcy attorneys said Judge Belvin Perry (the judge at her trial) “completely eviscerated” her chance of having a fair defamation trial in Orlando because of public comments he made on May 6, 2013.

Jodi Arias

Jodi Arias is an American woman, charged and convicted of first degree murder in the killing of Travis Alexander in Mesa, Arizona on May 8, 2008. Her trial began on January 2, 2013. She claimed she killed Alexander in self-defence after he became enraged following a gun accident. She was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8, 2013. On May 23, 2013, the death penalty sentencing phase of Arias's trial resulted in a hung jury, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial for that phase.

The case was televised and viewable online and was given extensive coverage by Time Warner subsidiaries Turner Broadcasting System, CNN, HLN. HLN staff and their commentators compared the case to the Casey Anthony case for the perceived similarities between Anthony and Arias and for the emotions that the cases incited in the general public. HLN aired a daily show covering the trial called HLN After Dark: The Jodi Arias Trial.

The Toronto Star commented "With its mix of jealousy, religion, murder and sex, the Jodi Arias case shows what happens when the justice system becomes entertainment"

Other cases

• Madeleine Smith
• David Camm
• Duke lacrosse case
• Shooting of Trayvon Martin
• Oscar Pistorius

See also

• Courtroom photography and broadcasting
• Femme Fatale
• Media circus
• Witch-hunt

References

1. "Legal News: News Hour with Jim Lehrer" (Transcript). Public Broadcasting System (PBS). 19 October 1998. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
2. "Claudine Longet: Aspen's Femme Fatale".
3. "1982: 'Trial by media' - the dingo baby case". BBC. 29 October 2008.
4. ^ "Scientists in the Dock Lawyers Scientists and the Prosecution of Offenders" (PDF). Deakin University. 2001. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
5. "Using the Chamberlain Case to explore evidence in history at page 6" (PDF). National Museum of Australia. 2001. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
6. Selwyn Raab, "Donovan Cleared of Fraud Charges By Jury In Bronx", New York Times, May 26, 1987
7. Arizona woman's murder conviction, death sentence overturned. CNN, 2013-03-14.
8. Debra Milke v. Charles Ryan, decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 14 March 2013
9. Rubin, Paul (10 April 1991). "Death-row Debbie: No one wanted to believe she could kill her child". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
10. Kevin Sack, "Richard Jewell, 44, Hero of Atlanta Attack, Dies", New York Times, August 30, 2007
11. Koch, Tony (13 December 2004). "Injuries left Palm body `unrecognisable', activist says". The Australian. p. 5.
12. 'Stress caused Hurley brother heart attack, Brisbane Times, AAP, Fairfax Digital, 31 August 2007
13. ^ http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/courts/coroner/findings/mulrunji270906.doc The Magistrates Court of Queensland "Inquest into the death of Mulrunji", 16 June 2009. Accessed 2 September 2009
14. Editorial (31 January 2007). "Solidarity for Hurley". Gold Coast Bulletin.
15. Koch, Tony (11 December 2004). "Yanner's bitter dilemma". The Weekend Australian. p. 1 and 4. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
16. Interest in black deaths in custody renews, ABC News, 7.30 Report, 15 December 2004
17. http://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2009/QCA09-167.pdf The Supreme Court of Queensland "Supreme Court of Appeal judgement", 16 June 2009. Accessed 2 September 2009
18. Palm Case 'like Biko', The Australian, Tony Kcch, 30 December 2006.
19. "Our man wins Journalist of the Year award". The Weekend Australian. 24 March 2007. p. 1 and 2.
20. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,20982826-3102,00.html Courier Mail "Palm Island Review Blasted", 28 December 2006. Accessed 25 October 2010
21. http://98.131.5.170/index.php?page=detail&id=256 Detail on Tony Koch "Police ads slam Beattie over Palm case", 22 June 2007. Accessed 25 October 2010
22. Marriner, Cosima (21 June 2007). "Family in Shock After Guilty Verdict". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
23. Cloud, John. "How the Casey Anthony Murder Case Became the Social-Media Trial of the Century, Time, June 16, 2011.
24. "Casey Anthony's attorneys: Judge Perry 'eviscerated' her chance of fair defamation trial".
25. HLNtv.com Staff (15 October 2012). "Jodi Arias next Casey Anthony?". HLN. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
26. Dr. Drew staff (3 January 2013). "Anthony and Arias: Common characteristics?". HLN. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
27. "Get caught up: Week 13 of Jodi Arias trial". HLNtv.com. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
28. "Jodi Arias: How sex and murder created a tabloid trial and killer ratings".

External links

• Condemnation of trial by media. Complete text of the judgement by the Andhra Pradesh High Court, India.

• Articles to be merged from June 2011
• Use dmy dates from April 2012
• English phrases
• Media issues
• Privacy
• Criticism of journalism
• Public opinion