Jurors and secrecy

Maine’s highest court reversed a trial judge's decision and ordered jury selection to be public in a notable prostitution prosecution.

“A generalized concern that juror candor might be reduced if [jury selection] is conducted in public is insufficient . . . to bar the public or media from the entirety of the process,” according to the majority opinion, written by Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley.

The trial court did not consider other less restrictive alternatives to closure that would still preserve the defendant’s rights, the opinion stated.

A Kentucky federal judge recently allowed media contact with jurors in a hate crime case, but denied the newspaper's attempt to strike down a local rule that normally prevents interaction with jurors in a federal trial.

A Washington, D.C., trial judge erred when he did not allow Washington Post reporters access to the questionnaires of jurors who convicted the killer of former intern Chandra Levy, D.C.’s appellate court ruled today.

Update (12/14/2011): U.S. Judge James Zagel has ruled that Chicago Tribune reporter Annie Sweeney will not be compelled to turn over her notes regarding a juror in the felony trial of William Cellini, the Tribune reports.

A three-judge panel of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals weighed Tuesday whether the questionnaires of jurors who convicted the killer of former intern Chandra Levy should be made public.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the state's 3rd District Court of Appeals to revisit the case of a Sacramento juror who was ordered to consent to the release of Facebook posts he had made during a criminal trial in 2010.

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Monday that completed juror questionnaires in the upcoming criminal trial of former professional baseball player Barry Bonds will be available to the public, but the names of the jurors will remain sealed until after the trial.

Two decisions last month by the Washington Court of Appeals reaffirmed the procedural steps a trial court must take before sealing juror questionnaires from the public and the news media. Those decisions, along with another recent appellate ruling, also highlighted the differences between the rights of the public to open court proceedings and that of criminal defendants to have a public trial.

A California appellate court denied Thursday a request to overturn a Sacramento trial court order requiring a juror to consent to Facebook's release of the online postings made by the juror while he served as the jury foreperson in a criminal trial. The juror's attorney vowed Friday to continue to challenge the order in court.