The Colorado Springs Gazette final

Lawyers: Don’t shut people out of Parkland hearings

Defense motion seeks to block public, press out of courtroom until mass-shooting murder trial begins

BY RAFAEL OLMEDA South Florida Sun Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. • The public has a right to be in the courtroom at every phase of the Parkland school shooting case. And that includes the final hearings that determine what evidence the jury will — and will not — be allowed to hear, prosecutors and media lawyers are arguing.

The Broward State Attorney’s Office filed a response this week to a defense motion that would, if approved by the court, lock the public and press out of the courtroom until the trial begins. That sets up a clash with defense lawyers trying to protect Nikolas Cruz’s right to a fair trial in the murders of 17 students and staff of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.

The trial of Cruz, 21, is tentatively scheduled to begin this fall with jury selection, a process that could take weeks or months given the level of pre-trial publicity and the likelihood that many in Broward County have heard about the case and may have already formed opinions about it.

“The presumption of access to judicial proceedings rests on the fundamental principle that the public’s awareness of judicial activity enhances a court’s integrity, protects defendants’ rights and promotes public acceptance of government,” the Broward State Attorney’s Office wrote in a response filed last Friday.

“Closure is considered a drastic measure that should be undertaken rarely — and only when the interest served by closure is shown to outweigh the value of openness.”

The Broward Public Defender’s Office, which represents Cruz, believes this case is one in which the public’s right to know is in conflict with the defendant’s right to a fair trial, and protecting the defendant is the office’s chief responsibility.

If the case proceeds on schedule, the hearings scheduled for this summer and early fall will be the last before jury selection. Defense lawyers are asking to limit some evidence and statements from reaching the ears of jurors, such as references to Cruz as a “murderer” and “it” as well as Nazi symbols on some of his belongings.

“Public disclosure of inadmissible evidence is detrimental to the truth-seeking function of a criminal trial because it taints potential jurors with inflammatory, irrelevant and prejudicial information,” defense lawyers wrote.

Attorneys for numerous media outlets, including the South Florida Sun Sentinel, have filed motions in opposition to closing the courtroom.

Pretrial publicity, no matter how extensive, does not automatically mean that a defendant’s right to a fair trial has been compromised, attorney Rachel Fugate wrote for the media organizations.

Lawyers for Cruz and the school district have clashed with the media throughout the case over issues of public access to information, including whether the state can release records showing who is visiting Cruz in jail and how much of his education record should be disclosed by the school district.

Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer has set an Aug. 10 hearing date to consider arguments on both sides.

DAILY ROUNDUP

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2021-07-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

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https://daily.gazette.com/article/281560883827870

The Gazette, Colorado Springs