Opinion ID: 879841
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: change of place of trial

Text: Because it may go unreported in the written opinions that have evolved from this case, some mention should be made of the jury climate in which the third trial in Flathead County occurred. The homicide of Karen Forsyth on December 11, 1979 became the subject of intense public discussion in Flathead County. Spurred by pervasive and abrasive newspaper and radio coverage, public sentiment was brought to a white heat in that county. After the first trial, and the reversal of the conviction by this Court, the defendant moved in the District Court for a change of place of trial from Flathead County. A survey of public opinion, and press clippings from the date of the homicide until the defendant was sentenced in May, 1980, convinced the then presiding district judge to make findings of fact and a conclusion requiring the cause to be transferred to Lake County before the second trial, because a fair trial could not be had in Flathead County. After the Lake County jury hung up in the second trial and a mistrial was ordered, the State moved the District Court for a change of place of trial from Lake County back to Flathead County, requesting that the cause be tried in Flathead County, either before a Flathead County jury or one selected from another county and returned to Flathead County for trial. The court in effect granted that motion. Thus, the third trial was returned to Flathead County, the same county, in which it had been earlier judicially determined that defendant could not receive a fair trial. The trial judge commented to the Toole County jury on the first day of the third trial: I would note as you have seen already that there is considerable public interest in these proceedings and you can tell that if by no other reason than the presence of the news media representatives, including a television camera, among other things. I want to say at the outset, that even though this controversy has generated a great deal of community interest in Flathead County, and even though as a result of this trial, to a certain extent this Court will probably be under the microscope of public scrutiny as well as the parties and their counsel ... The court went on to give the jury the usual cautionary instructions that they were not to be influenced by matters outside the testimony of the trial and the exhibits received. However cautioned, the jury members could not fail to perceive and perhaps to respond to the unremitting pressure for a conviction of the defendant. Bands of women, sensing somehow that the case involved women's rights, made it their business to pack the courtroom, every one of the 41 court days of the third trial. Sandy Richards, testifying that Douglas Richards had admitted to her that he committed the homicide of Karen Forsyth and not the defendant, complained on the record of the laughter coming from the members of the audience during her testimony, from two different sections of the courtroom audience. Interruptions from the audience in the court proceedings during trial are reflected in the court transcript. Everyday, before the jury verdict was announced, prejudicial radio coverage of the trial proceedings was going out over the airwaves. After the third trial, Forsyth filed a motion for a new trial and to supplement the record with respect to the prejudicial trial publicity adverse to the defendant. Defendant claimed that radio broadcasts to which the juror members were exposed contained biased, false and prejudicial statements. One of the jurors had written a post-trial article in the Shelby Promoter, a newspaper published in Toole County, which article contained several of the radio statements. The defendant caused to be issued and served a subpoena duces tecum upon the owner of the offending radio station. On the day of the hearing, the owner did not deign to appear, but sent one of his employees who sought to excuse not bringing the copies of broadcasts on the grounds the broadcast of all the news all over the world was too voluminous to bring to court. On the day of the hearing, the trial court ordered that the radio station provide at least one copy of the longest broadcast for each of the court days. Before adjourning the hearing, the District Court stated that the broadcast material would be placed in the record prior to the court's ruling on the motion for a new trial and the defense would be permitted to make its argument. That evening, copies of broadcasts of 27 of the 41 days were furnished to the trial judge. No further copies of the broadcast were supplied and no further hearing was set. Five days later, the District Court denied the motion for new trial without further argument or hearing. Thus, the District Court gave the defendant no opportunity to complete the record with respect to the effect of the radio broadcasts on the jurors and now the majority condemns the defendant for failing to show such influence. Even if we were not to consider the effect of the radio broadcasts, the transcript itself contains enough reference to the packed courtroom antics to assure us that the first district judge was correct in the first place in determining that in Flathead County the defendant could not receive a fair trial. The majority now state that the District Court acted properly in changing the place of trial back to Flathead County because the District Court is empowered under § 46-13-203(3)(c), MCA, to take any other action to ensure that a fair trial may be had. Flathead County was the least possible of the 56 counties in Montana in which Forsyth could have received a fair trial. Not lost to the taxpayers of Flathead County, especially reminded by the press and radio, was the mounting cost to them of the prosecution and defense of Forsyth.