State v. James

902 S.W.2d 911, 23 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2560, 1995 Tenn. LEXIS 328, 1995 WL 427952
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJune 26, 1995
Docket01S01-9505-JV-00069
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 902 S.W.2d 911 (State v. James) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. James, 902 S.W.2d 911, 23 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2560, 1995 Tenn. LEXIS 328, 1995 WL 427952 (Tenn. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

DROWOTA, Justice.

The issue presented in this extraordinary appeal is whether the Juvenile Court for Giles County erred in ruling that all further proceedings before the juvenile court should be closed to the public and press. For reasons hereinafter stated, we vacate the judgment of the juvenile court and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

FACT’S AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On March 6, 1995, separate petitions were filed in the Juvenile Court for Giles County charging fourteen-year-old Shawnda Lee James with first degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping. Both of these acts were allegedly committed on March 5, 1995. On March 10, 1995, the juvenile court ordered that Shawnda Lee James be temporarily placed in the Rutherford County juvenile detention center. The same order stated that a hearing would be conducted on March *912 15, 1995, to determine the further placement of the juvenile.

The Tennessean, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc., filed a motion with the juvenile court on March 14, 1995. The Tennessean’s motion included the following:

In the present case, the District Attorney has petitioned this Court to transfer the minor to Criminal Court to be tried as an adult. The movant understands that this Court intends to close all future hearings to the press and public. The Tennessean has a right to attend this and other hearings pursuant to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 19 of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee. It is therefore respectfully requested that The Tennessean be allowed to intervene in this action for the purpose of requesting that these hearings be open, and that this court open all future hearings to the public.

On March 22, 1995, the juvenile court entered an order stating that a hearing on The Tennessean’s motion had been conducted on March 15, 1995, and granting The Tennessean’s unopposed motion to intervene. This order also included the following:

The Court heard argument on behalf of The Tennessean in favor of opening all court proceedings, and argument on behalf of the State of Tennessee and a minor defendant seeking closure of court proceedings and opposing The Tennessean’s motion. After considering argument of counsel, and for the reasons stated at the hearing, the Court finds that the motion to open all court proceedings in this case is not well taken and shall be denied.

There is no transcript of the March 15, 1995, hearing conducted by the juvenile court.

The Tennessean filed an application under Rule 10, Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure, for an extraordinary appeal of the trial court’s order denying The Tennessean’s motion to open further proceedings. The Rule 10 application was denied by the Court of Appeals on April 13, 1995. The Tennessean applied to this Court on May 9, 1995, for review of the Court of Appeals’ order denying its Rule 10 application. By an order entered on May 23, 1995, this Court granted The Tennessean’s Rule 10 application and set oral argument for June 6, 1995. We also ordered that all proceedings in the Juvenile Court for Giles County be stayed pending further orders of this Court.

ANALYSIS

In State v. Drake, 701 S.W.2d 604 (Tenn. 1985), an issue similar to the one in this case was presented to the Supreme Court. The Court summarized the matters before it as follows:

We granted the Rule 11 application of the media entities listed in the style of this criminal case as intervenors to consider, to the extent we deem appropriate, the right of the public and the media to attend pretrial and trial proceedings in criminal cases, their right to intervene and be heard in opposition to motions for closure, and the procedure for intervention in the trial and the appellate courts.

Id. at 606.

In addition to describing procedures for hearing closure motions in criminal proceedings and for appellate review under Rule 10 of orders involving closure of criminal proceedings, the Court announced the principles that must be applied when a party seeks to close such proceedings. Relying on the United States Supreme Court decisions in Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39, 104 S.Ct. 2210, 81 L.Ed.2d 31 (1984), and Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court, 464 U.S. 501, 104 S.Ct. 819, 78 L.Ed.2d 629 (1984), both of which were criminal cases involving competing interests under the First and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution, we adopted the following rule when a closure or other restriction order is sought:

[T]he party seeking to close the hearing must advance an overriding interest that is likely to be prejudiced, the closure must be *913 no broader than necessary to protect that interest, the trial court must consider reasonable alternatives to closing the proceeding, and it must make findings adequate to support the closure. (Citation omitted.)

Drake, 701 S.W.2d at 608.

The United States Supreme Court has not yet addressed how the principles stated by it with respect to closing criminal proceedings would apply in the context of juvenile proceedings. However, the federal courts have recognized that additional interests are involved in juvenile proceedings. For example, in In re J.D.C., 594 A.2d 70 (D.C.App.1991), a juvenile delinquency proceeding, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals stated:

The [United States] Supreme Court has remarked that all fifty states have statutes which provide in some way for confidentiality of juvenile proceedings. Smith v. Daily Mail Publishing Co., 443 U.S. 97, 105, 99 S.Ct. 2667, 2671, 61 L.Ed.2d 399 (1979). ‘It is the law’s policy to hide youthful errors from the full gaze of the public and bury them in the graveyard of the forgotten past.’ In re: Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 24, 87 S.Ct. 1428, 1442, 18 L.Ed.2d 527 (1967).

Id. at 75. In another juvenile delinquency proceeding, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in United States v. A.D., 28 F.3d 1353 (3rd Cir.1994), observed as follows:

Recognizing the special sensitivity of information regarding juveniles and the impact that public dissemination of such information may have on the youths involved, states have devised a number of different approaches to accommodate these concerns.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
902 S.W.2d 911, 23 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2560, 1995 Tenn. LEXIS 328, 1995 WL 427952, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-james-tenn-1995.