Court Opinion

ID: 9861099
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:41:09.068203+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:27:13.344116
License: Public Domain

CLIFFORD, J.,
concurring in result.
The Court concludes that the “reasonable likelihood” standard of DR 7-107(D), dealing with one phase of trial publicity, is the appropriate standard by which to test a lawyer’s extrajudicial *641comments where the speech is intended to be disseminated to the public. I agree. It is only to the extent that the majority holds back from a determination on whether Hinds violated that standard that I depart from Justice Handler’s thoughtful opinion.
The pertinent part of the Rule bears repeating:
During the selection of a jury or a trial of a criminal matter, a lawyer or law firm associated with the prosecution or defense of a criminal matter shall not make or participate in making any extra-judicial statement that he expects to be disseminated by means of public communication and that relates to the trial, parties, or issues in the trial or other matters that are reasonably likely to interfere with a fair trial * * *.
Hinds’s remarks were deplorable in their absence of professionalism. But how is it reasonably likely that they could have “interfered with a fair trial”? They were directed solely at the trial judge, who commented, “I don’t think it had any impact on the trial whatsoever,” thereby displaying a desirable degree of epidermal impenetrability: the trial courtroom is no haven for the thin-skinned, either as lawyer or as judge. There was nothing in what respondent said that was likely to influence either the judge or a jury, which was still being selected. Had he announced, say, that a defendant’s confession had been extracted by law enforcement officials’ brutality, then a situation fraught with prejudice would have been presented. But these remarks, critical of the trial judge’s alleged racial insensitivity, did not touch upon any substantive issues in the case. I think we should say that today, so that the bench and bar will understand what kind of content we would pour into the Disciplinary Rule.
Merle L. Meacham said that “[t]he trouble with being tolerant is that people think you don’t understand the problem.” I understand the problem. I just refuse to get exercised about respondent’s lapse into uncivil sloganeering.