Sarasota Herald-Tribune v. State

916 So. 2d 904, 34 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1707, 2005 Fla. App. LEXIS 18215, 2005 WL 3072915
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedNovember 17, 2005
DocketNo. 2D05-5337
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 916 So. 2d 904 (Sarasota Herald-Tribune v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sarasota Herald-Tribune v. State, 916 So. 2d 904, 34 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1707, 2005 Fla. App. LEXIS 18215, 2005 WL 3072915 (Fla. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

ALTENBERND, Judge.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Tampa Tribune, and WFLA-TV News Channel 8 (the Media) petition this court to review an order entered by the trial court that attempts to protect the privacy interests of jurors who are currently serving in the criminal trial of Joseph P. Smith. Mr. Smith stands accused of having murdered Carlie Brucia. The case has attracted extraordinary media interest. The trial court’s order also attempts to protect Mr. Smith’s right to receive a fair trial by jury, uninfluenced by matters or persons outside the courtroom. The Media challenges the order, claiming that it violates its rights under the First Amendment and that aspects of the order constitute prior restraint.

I. A Questionable “Emergency,” and a First Amendment Issue that is Created More by the Openness of Florida’s Courts Than by their Secrecy.

The challenged order, entered on October 21, 2005, is attached to this opinion as Appendix A. The order basically requires all of the litigants and court personnel to refer to the jurors by number, instead of name, during court proceedings. The lawyers are free to ask the jurors the usual questions during voir dire in open court, except that they are not to reveal the jurors’ names or addresses. The Media is free to print descriptions of the jurors and observations about their statements and conduct in the courtroom, but the Media is not permitted to publish the names and addresses of the jurors even if the Media learns this information from an outside source. The Media is free to photograph the jury and to publish those photographs, except for the faces of the jurors. As in all trials, the jurors have been instructed by the trial court not to discuss the case with anyone before the case is over. If a juror has a problem or concern, that matter is to be addressed first to the bailiff or the trial judge and not to any other person. In this case, the trial court has reinforced these usual rules by instructing the Media not to have any contact with the jury during the proceedings.

The Media asks this court to quash the portions of the order “restricting release of juror names, banning photographing jurors, prohibiting the publication of juror names and addresses, and precluding the media from having any contact with jurors during the proceedings.” Although the Media describes this matter as an “emergency,” it admits that it does not make a practice of publishing the names and addresses of jurors during criminal trials and that it does not normally release photographs of the faces of such jurors or make any effort to contact them during trial. The Media claims no desire or intention to do any of these acts during this trial. The Media merely does not wish tó have an order instructing it to do that which it intends to do voluntarily. Thus, the Media has filed this “emergency” petition more as a matter of principle and as academic exercise rather than from a genuine need and desire to publish information that it has determined to be vital to its readers or viewers.

The Media did not file this petition as rapidly as most true emergencies are filed in this court. The trial court’s October 21, 2005, order was entered two days before the commencement of jury selection. The Media waited until November 7, 2005, to file this petition. Thus, the petition was not filed until the jury had been selected and had already been promised by the trial court that its privacy would be protected [907]*907in this manner. The decision not to sequester the jury had already been implemented before the petition was filed.

The Media filed the petition after the jury had been sworn and jeopardy had attached. The respondents in this petition, of course, are all involved in a very serious murder trial in which the State is seeking the death penalty. Neither the State nor Mr. Smith has any disagreement with the trial court’s order. It has been difficult for the respondents, the State, Mr. Smith, and the trial judge, to allocate time to respond on an emergency basis to the Media’s petition, which appears to be an emergency in name only.

There is a certain irony in the reality that the trial court’s order protecting the privacy of the jurors in this case is brought on, not by the secrecy of Florida’s courts, but by the extraordinary steps that Floridians have taken to open our courts to the press and to the public. While many courts, including federal courts, permit only sketch artists into the courtroom, Florida has long permitted liberal access to the media. Our supreme court regularly conducts its oral arguments open to the world by live video on the internet. We live in a state that strongly believes that the legitimacy of our court system and the strength of our democracy is fostered when the public has broad access to court proceedings. There is no question that the informal partnership that the courts have built with the media over the last generation has given the public a far more accurate understanding of court proceedings than can ever be achieved by sketch artists.

But our joint success in making the courtroom accessible to the public has not come without complications. Mr. Smith’s trial is being broadcast live, essentially to the world, by cable television. The cable television industry has come to realize that the public, including people far from Sarasota County, Florida, will view a trial not merely to assure that both sides receive a fair trial, but as a form of informative entertainment. Since the trial of O.J. Simpson, we have known that judges, lawyers, and expert witnesses can easily become household names and celebrities by virtue of a well-publicized trial.

Mr. Smith’s trial, however, from his perspective, is not a matter of informative entertainment. He has a constitutional right to a fair trial by a jury, uninfluenced by matters or people outside the courtroom. Likewise, the jurors did not come to the courthouse to be celebrity guests on a reality TV show. Because they are adults with drivers licenses, they received an order of court compelling them to appear. They are obeying the law and performing a valuable public service that many others shirk.

In article 1, section 23, of the Florida Constitution, every natural person is guaranteed the right “to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life.” Admittedly, we do not guarantee our citizens that they will be free from media intrusion into their lives, but citizens who are compelled to serve as jurors would seem to be entitled to some degree of protection when the government partners with the media to transform a courtroom into a live television show, supplemented by a large number of multimedia internet sites.

When a trial becomes such an extraordinary event, the trial court often needs to protect the jury from outside influence. Without some protection during the trial, jurors’ names and faces would be readily recognizable by strangers who see them at the gas station, grocery store, or a restaurant. The likelihood that one or more persons would try to influence their deci[908]*908sions, innocently or otherwise, seems very high.

Sequestration of a jury is always a possibility, but the truth is that sequestration is little better than imposing an involuntary detention on a group of citizens because of their willingness to perform their civic duty. It should be a last resort.

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Related

Schmidter v. State
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933 So. 2d 1199 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2006)

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Bluebook (online)
916 So. 2d 904, 34 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1707, 2005 Fla. App. LEXIS 18215, 2005 WL 3072915, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sarasota-herald-tribune-v-state-fladistctapp-2005.