High-Profile Defendant

I. INTRODUCTION

Throughout American history, there has been tension between the Sixth Amendment right of a criminal defendant to receive a fair trial and the First Amendment right for freedom of the press to publish news about criminal trials. Over the last seventy-five years in particular, media coverage of trials has steadily increased as a result of rapid advancements in technology. The increase in media coverage has led to the use of the term “high-profile” to define cases and defendants subjected to heightened media scrutiny. Initially, the use of cameras, and then television, in the courtroom triggered the heated constitutional debate over the proper balance of the First and Sixth Amendments. Beyond the traditional types of mass media, including newsprint and television reports, the Internet is a phenomenon that has rapidly and immeasurably changed the way in which the general public accesses information; its relative speed and broad, global reach portend an age where media has an even greater effect on juries