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\ 20 Sheppard v. Maawell No. 16077 addressed to the judgment of the trial court.... It properly accorded weight to the examination of the Jurors on voir dire and to the lack of difficulty in choosing a jury.... It was on the ground at the time of trial; it saw and heard the voir dire examination of the jurors; it was in much better position to know the local sentiment and to hear and decide the motion for change of venue than was the federal district court.” 250 F(2) 648. After the jury had been selected and before the exam- ination of prospective alternate jurors, Judge Blythin again overruled the motions for change of venue or a continuance, stating that “the best evidence in the world is the effort to select a jury, and what we get here in a picture that has taken almost two weeks of time. The Court is thor- oughly satisfied that we have here a fair and impar- tial group of people to try this case, and I doubt if under any conditions at any time anywhere in this state you could have a better looking group of people and a more intelligent group of people, as a whole, to try a case of this kind, and the Court is thoroughly satisfied that they are a group of fair and impartial people who can properly try this case under the guidance of the Court, and I hope we will be able to give them that in the manner that it ought to be given. Our examination of the entire record leaves us convinced that there is no basis for rejecting this considered judg- ment by the one judge most qualified to make it. Pretrial publicity is not the only focus of the District Court’s ruling that the news media deprived Dr. Sheppard of a fair‘ trial. The widespread publicity surrounding the trial itself is.also summarized in the opinion below, outlin- ing articles.whiech for the most part involve reporters’ recitation of evidence given and events occurring at the trial. One article reported that a prospective witness would testify that Marilyn Sheppard had referred to her husband as a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” This witness did testify, but did not disclose such an incident. Aside from this article, it is not claimed that however colorful, the accounts of the trial were substantially inaccurate. : aaa | mo No. 16077 Sheppard v. Maxwell 21 We feel no need to expand on the nature of this trial publicity, for petitioner’s claim of constitutional error on this account is controlled by considerations rather differ- ent from those we have just explored. Varying degrees of exposure to the pretrial publicity were admitted by the jurors on voir dire, but with the single exception of the Winchell broadcast noted below there is no specific showing that any of the jurors had any contact with the trial publicity. Petitioner emphasizes one article appearing during the trial entitled “But who will speak for Marilyn?” Whether we borrow the Ohio Attorney General’s words and char- acterize this effort at impassioned prose as “inane and innocuous” reporting, or as the author’s amateurish reach for immortality, we have more confidence in American jurors than to believe they would be made faithless to their oaths by reading it, 1f in fact any of them did. Our own review of the record in this case discloses that the trial judge, from the beginning of the trial to its end, repeatedly employed traditional admonitions to the jury reminding them of their duty and oath to hear and try the case before them solely upon the evidence adduced in the courtroom. Because of its thoroughness, we set out in full an early charge to the whole jury: “And will you, ladies and gentlemen, be kind enough again to observe the caution which the Court has heretofore expressed to you? And I will repeat it again for the benefit of the two new jurors who have come, alternate jurors who have come into the picture. “You are not to talk about this case to anyone. You are not to permit anyone to talk about it to you. You are not to remain anywhere where other people are talking about it among themselves. You are not to talk about it among yourselves, in your jury room or elsewhere. “It is your duty as an individual juror and responsi- ble citizens to keep your own counsel, to listen to the evidence that comes from this witness stand and the instructions of the Court as to the law and wait until all those are complete before you form any opinion or judgment whatever as to the outcome of this case, which opinions and judgments are to be expressed only in your jury room after the case has been finally submitted to you for deliberation and decision. a a fi if ii I, i