EOTO #3 Trial By Media

Trial by media is a popular phrase that has been used 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.

The media conducts a separate investigation that builds up thew public opinion against the accused before the case even reaches the court. In recent years the media has been seen as a "public court" and has began to interfere in court proceedings.

The problem with trial by media is that the media misuses freedom of speech and expression which creates an interference in the process of the justice system. In the past there have been multiple occasions when the media has been accused of conducting a trial of the accused and passing the verdict before the court passes their own judgement. 

This has a major effect on the accused because as a result of the exposure by the media, the individual whether guilty or innocent will have to live under intense public scrutiny. Their social image is also ruined by it. 

Under the sixth amendment, every defendant is entitled to a trial by an impartial jury, but due to extensive media coverage, jury selection in a high profile case is extremely difficult. Jurors will likely have developed some biases or knowledge about the case based on media coverage. Potential Jurors are assessed during the void dire process. 

There are numerous ways that the court can address pre-trial publicity. Despite the biasing effect of pre-trial publicity, the Supreme Court has ruled that courts cannot stop the press from publicizing truthful information about criminal trials and in doing this it would be a violation of the First Amendment right too freedom of the press. Pre-trial publicity cannot be prevented, which means that courts must find ways to minimize its impact on the fairness of the trial. 

There are some famous trials that have "trial in the media" involved. These are: Ted Bundy (1980), OJ Simpson (1995), Casey Anthony (2011), and Jodi Arias (2015). Out of all of these, the trial of OJ Simpson is probably one of the most famous.

 OJ Simpson was a former NFL star who was acquitted in 1995 for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. On the night of June 12, 1944, Simpson's ex-wife and her friend Ronald Goldman were found murdered outside of her home. Simpson soon became a suspect and instead of surrendering to the police, he hid inside the back of a sport-utility vehicle driven by his friend A.C Cowlings. After law enforcement was notified that Simpson had a gun, they followed the car for over an hour.

Because OJ Simpson was a known NFL player, many individuals viewed him as a good guy, not being able to commit such a crime. This automatically caused conflict because so many people already had different views on him whether it was good or bad. The trial was then turned into a racial issue. Coverage began to turn further away from the truth and began to report lies instead of facts. The media published stories before confirming any of the facts and they had people write stories that did not know what they were talking about in actual court proceedings.