High-profile celebrity trials test lawyers’ skills with ‘unique set of challenges’

From Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart and Phil Spector to Kobe Bryant and Jayson Williams, celebrity criminal trials continue to be top news items. But as the spotlight on these trials intensifies, attorneys representing celebrities are presented with a unique set of challenges, says Christopher Bracey, an expert in the fields of criminal rights and criminal process and an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “Instead of focusing solely on preparing a strong legal defense, these attorneys are dealing with issues such as client management, tainted jury pools and misinformation.”

Bracey notes that Michael Jackson’s recent arraignment in Santa Maria, Calif. highlights the challenge of client management.

Jury selection and client management look to be major issues for lawyers in the upcoming Michael Jackson sex abuse trial.
Jury selection and client management look to be major issues for lawyers in the upcoming Michael Jackson sex abuse trial.

“Ordinarily, an arraignment is a short and fairly straightforward proceeding – the defendant appears before the court, the charges are announced, the defendant enters a plea, and the proceeding is concluded,” says Bracey.

“Michael Jackson’s arraignment, however, was lacking in both brevity and seriousness. In addition to arriving 20 minutes late to the arraignment, Jackson decided to climb on top of a black SUV and bask in media and fan attention after the proceedings. His behavior indicates that he has fully bought into his own delusional hype, as a circus-like atmosphere that his attorneys are either unwilling or unable to control consumes the seriousness of the charges.”

The manslaughter case against former NBA player Jayson Williams calls attention to the jury issues that plague celebrity trials. “Heavy public scrutiny of celebrity trials makes it very difficult to find an impartial jury,” says Bracey.

Williams’ case, which was originally filed in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, was moved to neighboring Somerset County at the request of Williams’ attorneys because they felt that excessive publicity had tainted the jury pool in his home county. Jury selection, which began on January 13, 2004, will draw upon 300 potential jurors, and is expected to continue until the end of the month.

Popular scrutiny of celebrity poses another problem: the proliferation of factual inaccuracies. “The sheer number of media and popular outlets – from CNN to fansites such as www.kobewatch.org and www.kobetimes.com, which purport to provide up-to-date information regarding the rape trial of Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant – means that information and misinformation about celebrity trials is generated and dispersed at a rate that was simply unimaginable a decade ago,” says Bracey.

The big challenge for both defense attorneys and prosecutors in celebrity trials is how to respond to the misinformation.

“Prosecutors in the Michael Jackson case have taken the unusual step of creating a prosecutor’s website where briefs and documents relating to the case are posted,” says Bracey.

“Since that time, the judge has issued a gag order, which prohibits both the prosecutor and criminal defense lawyers from speaking publicly about the case. In contrast, lawyers for Jayson Williams chose to respond to material inaccuracies reported about the case by arranging for their celebrity client to be interviewed by celebrity reporter Barbara Walters on the ’20/20′ news program.

“I suspect that lawyers for Phil Spector are paying close attention to developments in each of these other trials in an effort to devise a winning strategy for their own client.”