The A.B.A.: Free Press & Fair Trial

(2 of 2)

Beyond such guidelines, the committee is flatly against "expanded use of the contempt power against the news media or the enactment of statutory restrictions." For one thing, news media have recently shown "impressive" restraint. For another, the Sheppard decision clearly suggests that trial judges can and should combat inflammatory reporting by many other devices—holding pretrial hearings in private, granting continuances and changes of venue, selecting jurors from distant localities, sequestering jurors to make sure that they do not read the newspapers and readily ordering mistrials when they do.

The committee's recommendations have yet to be adopted by the A.B.A.'s house of delegates or fully accepted by the courts. As for the press, the American Society of Newspaper Editors regards the committee report as partly "excellent," but fears that its adoption might invite "secret law enforcement," resulting in "a partially and improperly informed public at the time of serious crime." To that extent, declares the A.S.N.E., the recommendations are "in conflict with the Constitution."