Can Donald Trump get a fair trial with unbiased jurors?
In the toxic political atmosphere hovering over America since 2015, not a day goes by without the news media pronouncing Trump guilty of a wide range of nefarious deeds, real and imagined.
But I searched for an opinion piece about fair trials and pre-trial publicity, from liberal sources, dating from before Mr. Trump became controversial. And what they had to say as recently as 2014 is very different from what is being written today. Today, the media has very different standards on the rights of the accused.
The following are quotes from the Huffpost opinion piece below:
“As is too often the case, right from the start, the defendant is being tried in the press.”
“Some argue that searching questions of jurors can cure pre-trial publicity. If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you. Many jurors lie to get on juries, and many lie to stay off juries. Sometimes jurors maintain they have heard no publicity about a case only to remember later that they had heard damaging information about the defendant.”
“So what to do? One possibility, of course, is to gag the press. This is commonly done in England and Germany… In the U.S., however, even if such restrictions could get through the legislative process, a court challenge on free press grounds would be immediately successful.”
After lamenting the fact that the police sometimes leak incriminating details to the press that are then broadcast to the public and prejudice jury pools, this article concludes:
“To put it another way, if fair trials are the hallmark of a civilized society, we do not live in a civilized society.”
That was in 2014. Today, nine years later, we have a former President facing criminal charges and the media has pronounced him guilty to a degree unlike any other figure in American history.
And the presumption of guilt created by the media has had its effect: an ABC news poll from April 2023 found that 53% of Americans believe Trump is guilty.
A CNN piece from 2021 is titled, “How Americans Know Trump is Guilty,
and says there is an “urgent need” to convict him.
Many of you who are reading this may be saying or thinking, “Of course Trump is guilty!”
And that’s exactly why Donald Trump cannot get a fair trial. I would say it’s impossible.
The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution says that every criminal defendant has the right to a fair and speedy trial with impartial jurors.
I contend that, using the very arguments that liberals used prior to the Trump era, Donald Trump cannot get a fair trial anywhere in America, and it’s thanks to the media that has convinced the public of his guilt.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the media itself were the cause for all charges to be dismissed against Mr. Trump?
More from the Huffington Post:
