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conte oR |e : { ane - No. 16077 interview with Fabian of Scotland Yard on the steps of the courthouse (See Appendix C), and holding a press confer- ence on the fourth day of jury deliberation on the verdict to announce his intention to keep them deliberating (See Appendix D). ~ . THE TRIAL JURY AND THE NEWS MEDIA “The courtroom at these times is as sacrosanct as the cathedral, to be guarded against all raucous, impas- sioned, and foreign influence.” ’ Sheppard v. Maxwell News media interest in the case had increased as the trial date neared. The names and addresses of all progpective jurors were published in the papers. Extensive ‘quotes from the voir dire examination of all prospective jurors were carried. Every juror who ultimately was seated, except one, testi- fied at voir dire to reading about the case in the Cleveland papers. Every juror who was asked the specific question testified. that a Cleveland newspaper was delivered daily to his or her home. Seven of the twelve jurors who rendered the verdict were asked and did answer that they had one or more Cleveland papers delivered to their homes. Five of the twelve jurors who rendered the verdict had The Cleveland Press delivered to their homes. At the trial there were photographers inside the bar of Court immediately before the trial judge entered and im- mediately after the trial judge left the bench at any session where they desired to photograph the defendant, the jury, or the witnesses. There was a table full of reporters and commentators within the bar of the court all through trial within one foot of-.the jury box. “~All-other seats in the courtroom, except those in the very-last row, were assigned by the trial judge to news media representatives who were admitted on passes. Half of the last row was assigned by the trial judge to the Sheppard family and half to Marilyn’s family. * Justice William O. Douglas, Public Trial ar ; AB.AJ. 840, 844 (Aug. 1960). rial and the Free Press, 46 No. 16077 Sheppard v. Maxwell 55 On the first day after it was sworn in, the jury was called back and posed in the jury box, with the pictures appearing in The Cleveland Press (See Appendix E). On the same afternoon a reporter for The Cleveland Press was chosen as 2 representative of the press to ac- company the jury on a tour of the Sheppard home. | On this same tour The Cleveland Press had a helicopter photographing the jury at the murder scene and subse- quently published the photograph thus taken. During the trial the jury’s pictures, or those of one or more jurors, appeared in the newspapers 40 times (Cf. Appendix F). These photographs included pictures of the jury, taken - with the trial judge’s permission, at lunch in the jury room See Appendix G). They also included repeated arranged photographs of the jury taken during the five days of their deliberations on the verdict. For one of such, see Appendix H. . There were also photographs taken during the trial in the home of the alternate juror (and printed in The Cleveland Press) picturing her husband, her mother, and her children (See Appendix I). THE TRIAL RULINGS “The rules of courtroom conduct must be such as to remove it from the distractions and disturbances of the market place and to maintain as nearly as possible an atmosphere conducive to profound and undisturbed deliberation. ... A court, in enforcing reasonable courtroom decorum, is preserving the constitutional and unalienable right of a litigant to a fair trial, and, in preserving such right, the court does not interfere with the freedom of the press.” * As this trial opened the trial judge had ample warning from the pretrial events which we have recited as to the nature and aggressiveness of the publicity which might attend the trial. 8 State v. Clifford, 97 Ohio App. 1, 6-6 (1954), aff'd., 162 Ohio St. 370 (1954), cert. denied, 349 U.S. 929 (1955). Ohio Appellate decision, April 14, 1954. Ohio Supreme Court decision, December 15,.1954. In these — cases the Ohio Appellate Court upheld contempt convictions against three employees of The Cleveland Press for violating Judge Silbert’s order against “picture taking while the court was in session.” - Judge Silbert was a member of the same Common Pleas bench as the trial judge in the instant case. ; ‘