Opinion ID: 486363
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Trial Atmosphere

Text: 13 The Supreme Court has indicated that it will vacate a conviction tied to a trial entirely lacking in the solemnity and sobriety to which a defendant is entitled in a system that subscribes to any notion of fairness and rejects the verdict of a mob. Murphy v. Florida, 421 U.S. 794, 799, 95 S.Ct. 2031, 2036, 44 L.Ed.2d 589 (1975); accord Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 86 S.Ct. 1507, 16 L.Ed.2d 600 (1966); Estes v. Texas, 381 U.S. 532, 85 S.Ct. 1628, 14 L.Ed.2d 543 (1965). In both Estes and Sheppard, the impact of the media's presence and conduct in the courtroom was found to have created a circus-like atmosphere that deprived defendants of the judicial serenity and calm essential to a fair trial. The Court took note of the judge's failure, in each case, to shield the jurors from public pressure once the trial began. See Sheppard, 384 U.S. at 353, 86 S.Ct. at 1517 (the judge's failure to insulate [the jurors] from reporters and photographers ... exposed them to expressions of opinion from both cranks and friends); Estes, 381 U.S. at 545, 85 S.Ct. at 1634 (televised trial exposed jurors to pressures of knowing that friends and neighbors have their eyes upon them, and the pressure of knowing that they must return to neighbors who saw the trial themselves). 14 Nothing in appellants' trial resembled the conditions criticized in Estes and Maxwell. Insofar as the record can reveal, the proceedings were conducted with dignity and impartiality, containing none of the circus-like aspects the Supreme Court found troubling in Estes and Maxwell. By sequestering the jury throughout the trial, the court shielded the jurors during the period of the trial itself from exposure to media accounts and communications with and from outsiders. There is absolutely no reason to believe, therefore, that any untoward community passions spilled over into the courtroom so as to infect the trial process, or reached the jurors during the trial so as to influence them while they assessed the evidence.