Judge Reverses Public Exclusion in Fincher Case

From Oscar Stilley (Wayne Fincher's attorney):

I just got off a conference with the Court and opposing counsel. At 9:00 AM, I objected to the conduct of any court proceedings outside the public eye. Judge Hendren overruled the objection.

Earlier this afternoon during our conference the judge, on his own motion, explained that he thought his earlier ruling was incorrect and reversed it. He set forth the legal test for excluding the public, based upon research by his personnel, and stated that he did not believe that there was a sufficient reason to exclude the public from part of the proceedings.

He said that his concern this morning was the logistics involved in keeping the jurors out of the courtroom while arguments and rulings on motions and other preliminary matters took place. I don’t question in the slightest that this was the actual reason for the initial ruling.

This afternoon, Judge Hendren said that his solution was to postpone the jury selection process until Wednesday morning. This will give us more seating for the pretrial matters, which are absolutely critical in this case. So we have a win-win situation with this ruling.

I will still go back in chambers. I have no objection to that, and I trust that the public will not be concerned about that. My objection was to keeping any official proceedings out of the public eye. Judge Hendren has agreed that the importance of allowing the public to view all recorded proceedings outweighed any logistical difficulties. I told Judge Hendren that I was very grateful for the ruling and that is the truth.

There is a new schedule. Pretrial will be at 8:30 AM Tuesday morning, the 9th. We will adjourn after those proceedings conclude. At 8:30 on Wednesday morning we will commence jury selection.

Due to the need for seats for the jury, some of the public and perhaps the press as well, may have to wait outside due to lack of space. That’s ok, an overflow crowd is a good thing, not a bad thing. We will probably discuss the logistics of this a bit more in the morning. However, as soon as seating is available it will be opened to the public. Jury selection may be over when most of the seating comes available, but the court will accommodate the public as best as he can.

I am grateful, so grateful for this ruling, and hope that the rest of the interested public is too. It takes courage to do what Judge Hendren did, and for that he deserves our highest respect.

[Via Joe & Barb McCutcheon]

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