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Ruling supports openness in jury selection

By Mark Obbie

A panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has written a lengthy opinion explaining why a trial judge erred in trying to hide the names of jurors in a government-corruption trial. The decision is reported in this detailed story by Shannon Duffy of The Legal Intelligencer in Philadelphia. Theoretical privacy concerns don't trump the tradition of openness, the court ruled over the dissent of one judge who groused about having to "bow to media demands." The challenge was filed by lawyers for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WPXI, who've aided the cause of post-verdict jury interviews, in addition to the general principle of public trials.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on August 04, 2008 (boomark / email).