Opinion ID: 1810757
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Effect on particular categories of witnesses.

Text: Experience during the pilot period demonstrated that there were occasional instances of significant adverse impact on some categories of witnesses. Although the standards as adopted by this Court recognized the authority of the presiding judge conferred by statute, rule or common law to control the conduct of proceedings before him, no standard for exercise of the judge's discretion in this regard was articulated. [52] As a result, some of the problems relating to electronic media coverage of certain categories of witnesses anticipated by the opponents did, in fact, arise. In the case of State v. Paul Jacobson, Case No. 75-8791, Eleventh Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida, the electronic media asserted the right to photograph witnesses who were under federal protection and relocated about the country to protect their identity. [53] After a hearing the presiding judge declined to permit such coverage. In State v. Herman, Case No. 77-1236, Fifteenth Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida, two problems occurred concerning the coverage of certain types of witnesses. The widow of the deceased murder victim sought to prohibit electronic media coverage of her appearance as a witness. The presiding judge overruled her claimed right to privacy under the ninth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution and article I, section 1, Florida Constitution. Both this Court [54] and the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida refused to intervene. [55] During the same trial Judge Sholts denied the objection to electronic media coverage interposed by an inmate of the Florida Corrections System who had been called as a witness by the state. Spurred by the fear of reprisals from fellow inmates if she testified, the prisoner refused to take the stand and as a result was held in contempt. [56] It is not clear that in either instance the presiding judge perceived that discretion reposed in him to grant the objection by the witness. In State v. Bannister, Case No. 77-521-CF-A-01, Twelfth Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida, the presiding judge considered but refrained from prohibiting electronic media coverage of the testimony of a sixteen-year-old rape victim. The District Court of Appeal, Second District, intervened to the extent of requesting the trial judge to hold a hearing on such proposal, after notice to the media, before entering any order prohibiting media coverage. Times Publishing Co. v. Hall, 357 So.2d 736 (Fla.2d DCA 1978). Although not invoked, the presiding judge apparently concluded that this Court's standards provided him discretionary authority to bar electronic media coverage of a particular witness. The foregoing examples demonstrate that unique problems can arise with respect to particular participants in a judicial proceeding. They do not, however, reveal any compelling reason for refusing to amend Canon 3 A(7). What is called for is an articulated standard for the exercise of the presiding judge's discretion in determining whether it is appropriate to prohibit electronic media coverage of a particular participant. Implicit in this statement, of course, is the conclusion that in certain instances it is appropriate to prohibit electronic media coverage of particular participants. This is so because, for certain trial participants, there is a qualitative difference between the printed word and a photograph. Electronic media coverage of certain child custody proceedings could have a devastating impact on the welfare of the child participant. The future well-being of the child far outweighs the public's interest in being informed of such proceedings. And we can conceive of situations where it would be legally appropriate to exclude the electronic media where the public in general is not excluded. [57] Similar considerations can present themselves where prisoners, confidential informants, sexual battery victims, relatives of victims, and witnesses under protection of anonymity are concerned. However, we deem it imprudent to compile a laundry list or adopt an absolute rule to deal with these occurrences. Instead, the matter should be left to the sound discretion of the presiding judge to be exercised in accordance with the following standard: The presiding judge may exclude electronic media coverage of a particular participant only upon a finding that such coverage will have a substantial effect upon the particular individual which would be qualitatively different from the effect on members of the public in general and such effect will be qualitatively different from coverage by other types of media.