Prejudicial Pretrial Publicity

PTP constitutes a serious source of juror bias.

The courts must determine whether pre-trial publicity has caused widespread prejudice within the jury panel.

Op-Ed: Adverse Pretrial Publicity And Fair Capital Trials (New York Law Journal) by Christopher Dunn

Capital prosecutions often arise out of horrific crimes that spawn media coverage that saturates a community with inflammatory and oftentimes inaccurate information about the accused. While the media and public have important constitutional rights to disseminate and receive information about crimes, the accused have an equally important right to be tried by juries that have not been tainted by prejudicial, pretrial publicity. Moreover, the impartiality of juries — in fact and in appearance — is a lynchpin to the legitimacy of our criminal-justice system.

https://www.nyclu.org/commentary/op-ed-adverse-pretrial-publicity-and-fair-capital-trials-new-york-law-journal