Problem of Prejudicial Publicity and Right of Criminal to a Fair Trial

On November 23, 1993, the Washington blank space publish a lengthy article which described the instance using interviews with persons familiarityable about the trial and separate argue accounts. Paul Teale was an accountant who was connected by law to a series of violent rapes in his hometown. Karla was a senior in high school when she met him; after her graduation in 1988, they locomote to a quiet neighborhood on the shores of Lake Ontario. While animateness there, she everyegedly began helping him find girls for sex, some of who were friends of Karla's 14-year-old sister, tammy. At Karla's trial, it was allegedly revealed that on December 23, 1990, Karla slipped an animal tranquilizer into Tammy's drink. While Tammy was unconscious, both Paul and Karla had sex with her, videotaping their activities. But Tammy reacted to the do drugs violently and choked to death on her own vomit. cardinal months later, Paul allegedly abducted 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy, brought her to the couple's home, tortured her for ii days, then strangled her. Ten months later, Karla allegedly helped Paul abduct 15-year-old Kristen French, who was tortured for two weeks and finally strangled.

During this period of time, Paul began inflicting increasingly brutal beatings upon Karla, until January of 1993, when Karla left field him and checked into a hospital to recover from her injuries. She then contacted the police and began talking. Paul was secureed in February

bingle if the first remedies available is a change of venue. In cases where an undefiled community has been exposed to publicity which whitethorn be prejudicial, a change of venue can move the trial to other community where interest in the case is not as high and where publicity may have penetrated but a little. In an age of electronic communications, however, the cases with the most publicity may not receive less assist in other communities. As noted at the beginning of this paper, the final arrest of O.J. Simpson was broadcast live across the United States on all of the major television networks; the facts surrounding the murder of his ex-wife have been published in all of the national intelligence operation magazines.

There is no community in the United States which has not been penetrated by the news of his case. On the other hand, most cases which receive national media attention will only generate prejudice in the local communities directly affected by the crimes.

It is not indispensable for the publishing company to have the intent to interfere with the proceedings; it is only necessary for the publisher to intend to publish the material in question. eventide a person who does not, or cannot, know that proceedings ar sub judice can be found guilty of scorn; also potentially guilty are defendants who had no knowledge of the contents of the outcome, published the material by mistake, or who took mediocre precautions to exclude prejudicial material.

In place of prohibiting the public from be criminal proceedings (or often in addition to doing so) it has oftentimes been popular for trial courts to place orders on media organizations restraining them from publishing tuition about the case at hand. As noted at the beginning of this paper, a Canadian court has currently primed(p) such an order concerning the facts of the case involving Karla Homolka and Paul Teale. Such publication bans are a fairly common feature in high-profile Canadian cases.

Most courts and c
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