Fair Trial and 1st Amendment

* Bill Boyarsky (“Journalists and Public Need a Strong Shield,” April 28) believes that the press is entitled to keep exonerating information secret; you could go to jail, or be executed, even though you are completely innocent, because the reporter thinks the story is more important than your life.

Fortunately, the U.S. Constitution offers some protection. Our justice system, abused as it might be, takes comfort in the concept that it should not be used to convict innocent persons. It does not benefit anyone, and it causes the moral breakdown of society. An individual’s right to a fair trial, to prevent injustice, should be held above a magazine story, no matter how worthwhile it purports to be.

I am an attorney who represents an individual accused of a crime, who is awaiting trial. The rough notes of interviews with witnesses obtained by the reporter and presently being withheld are believed to contain exculpatory information not available to the defense from any other source. Without these notes, an innocent man may be convicted of a crime he did not commit. The notes are being withheld purportedly to protect the freedom of the press to gather information.

The 5th Amendment right to a fair trial and the 6th Amendment right to present evidence in one’s own behalf certainly may come into conflict with 1st Amendment rights trumpeted by the media. It is a very complex balance. Lest we forget why we want freedom of the press, it certainly is not to prevent the truthful presentation of the facts at a trial.

GARRETT J. ZELEN

Los Angeles