Gitmo Hearings Behind Closed Doors

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The inaugural Periodic Review Board ("PRB") hearing of Guantanamo Bay detainee Mahmud al Mujahid, 33, scheduled for today excludes the press and will be conducted beyond closed doors, the Jurist.org Web site reports.

President Barack Obama established the PRB via an executive order in 2011 whose aim is to review the status of certain detainees at Guantanamo Bay to gauge whether continued incarceration is warranted in the interest of national security. The Dept. of Defense has indicated 71 detainees are in line for a PRB hearing to determine whether transfer or release may be allowed.

The decision to bar the press and public from the proceedings is a tone-deaf one for an administration that could only benefit from the transparency to which it often pays lip service.  The framers of the U.S. Constitution recognized in the Sixth Amendment the importance of public trials. At the very least, it should be incumbent on government attorneys to meet the burden of proving that the Constitution does not apply to the PRB hearings.

UPDATE: Toledo Blade Challenges Judge's Courtroom Closure

Image via Wikipedia

The Block Communications-owned The Toledo Blade has filed a complaint for an original writ of prohibition with the Ohio Supreme Court urging the state high court to overturn as an unconstitutional prior restraint Henry County Judge Keith P. Muehlfeld's order prohibiting the news media from reporting on a manslaughter trial in an open courtroom until a jury has been impaneled in the trial of a co-defendant. [See "TUOL" post 1/21/10.]

The action, The State of Ohio ex rel. The Toledo Blade Co. v. The Court of County Pleas of Henry County, Ohio & The Hon. Keith P. Muehlfeld claims that Judge Muehfeld's gag order in  The State of Ohio v. David E. Knepley & Jayme Schwenkmeyer runs afoul of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the Ohio Constitution.

In Craig v. Harney, 331 U.S. 367, 374 (1947), the Supreme Court noted that what transpires in open court is public property that judges can't suppress, edit or censor. In the seminal case of Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539 (1976), the high court ruled that what occurs in a public hearing is not subject to judicial prior restraint.

Preserving the presumption of innocence and protecting the fair trial right of the accused is paramount in our criminal justice system, but as Judge Muehlfeld is likely soon to learn, it must be done without infringing on the constitutional rights of the public and the press to see the justice system in action.

Ohio Judge Bars Press Coverage of Jury Selection in Murder Trial

Image by Padraic. via Flickr

Henry County (Ohio) Judge Keith P. Muehlfeld has restricted press coverage in the involuntary manslaughter case of 13-month-old Kamryn Gerkin the same week that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the defendant's conviction in a Georgia drug trial because the public was excluded from the courtroom during the jury selection process.

Judge Muehlfeld has left the door to his courtroom unlocked, but has banned the press from reporting on the trials of the toddler's mother Jayme Schwenkmeyer and her boyfriend David Knepley until the jury is seated. Judge Muehlfeld also issued a gag order against attorneys and witnesses preventing them from speaking to the news media pre-jury selection.  An autopsy performed on the toddler allegedly revealed the presence of multiple toxic drugs, including oxycodone.

Judge Muehlfeld's well-intentioned, but ham-fisted, attempt to prevent the jury pool from becoming tainted by prejudicial pretrial publicity is particularly egregious in that it occurred the same week in which the High Court held in a 7-2 decision in Presley v. Georgia (Case No. 09-5270) that jury selection in criminal trials is presumptively open under the First and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution.

In Richmond Newspapers  v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 555 (1980), Justice Warren Burger wrote the majority opinion holding that the First Amendment guarantees all citizens the right to attend criminal trials. "TUOL" prescribes a daily constitutional for Judge Muehlfeld consisting of a brisk walk to the law library where he can re-read the Bill of Rights.

Judge Says Press May Cover Hearsay Hearing in Peterson Murder Case

Image by Michael Kappel via Flickr

Will County (Ill.) Circuit Judge Stephen White will allow press coverage of testimony from 15 hearsay witnesses for the prosecution in the case of  People of the State of Illinois v. Drew Walter Peterson (Case. No. 09CF1048).

Peterson, a former police officer in Bollingbrook, Ill., is accused of drowning Kathleen Savio, his third wife, in 2004. Peterson's attorneys on Dec. 19 asked Judge White to close the courtroom during the hearing, which is mandatory under a hearsay evidence law recently enacted in Illinois. Defense counsel said the anticipated testimony would be highly prejudicial, but Judge White found no basis for closing the hearing to the public.