Opinion ID: 1963191
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Instructions on Media Coverage to the Jury

Text: Cruz also argues that the district court erred by repeatedly instructing the jury to refrain from watching media coverage on his case. Media attention first began when Cruz fled to Illinois before he was arrested for these crimes. A local television news program did a feature on Cruz's arrest and extradition back to Minnesota. Cruz moved to bar the State from making reference to Cruz's extradition because of its potential to remind the jurors of the news story. The court denied the motion, but offered to warn the jury about media coverage. The court warned the jury to avoid media coverage of the case approximately three times, usually before the jury was released for the day. The court also made a general statement one morning after it had received some inquiries from the news media. The State and defense counsel together asked the court to refrain from further statements about half-way through the trial because there was ongoing media coverage. The court agreed and did not again address the issue with the jury. Whether to provide cautionary instructions is in the district court's discretion, and we will only review that decision for an abuse of that discretion. See State v. Roman Nose, 667 N.W.2d 386, 397-98 (Minn.2003). There was no abuse of discretion here because Cruz had raised concerns about media coverage before trial, which prompted the court to offer to issue instructions. The instructions were usually at the end of the day and limited in content. Most importantly, instructions were only made three or four times, and the court stopped giving such instructions as soon as requested.