Fair Trial

William Kennedy Smith is not exactly a household name, but the allegation that a member of the country's most well-known family raped a Florida woman last Easter has certainly generated an unusual amount of publicity.The latest twist in the case came earlier this week when prosecutors filed detailed statements from three women -- one of whom claimed that Smith raped her in 1988 and two others who say he sexually attacked them. Prosecutors say they will use the women's testimony to impeach Smith's credibility if he takes the witness stand.

The trial of Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford has begun -- with hi jurors on trial. Some may even feel intimidated. Three dozen demonstrators marched outside the U.S. courthouse in Memphis show support for the accused black congressman. The leader of the group said he expected no violence "if this process goes properly."The problem with the process is that the jury is composed of 11 whites and one black, all from another jurisdiction. A federal judge ordered the jury chosen from outside Memphis, which is heavily black.

Judge Thomas J. S. Waxter Jr. removed himself from the sex abuse trial of a former middle school assistant principal yesterday before even a single juror had been picked, when lawyers on both sides objected to his unusual remarks about the guilt of the defendant.Jury selection and opening statements were scheduled to begin yesterday in the Baltimore Circuit Court trial of Charles Michael Shockney Jr., 40, who is charged with abusing two boys during baby-sitting or social situations between 1991 and 1993.

WHAT POSES the real threat to Manuel Antonio Noriega's right to a fair trial?Is it the airing by Cable News Network of a few leaked recordings of privileged conversations between the ousted Panamanian dictator and his legal defense team?Or is it the bald fact that federal agents taped an unknown nubmer of telephone discussions involving Noriega and his attorney and legal staff, and thus may possess important clues as to the direction his defense strategists will take, clues that a prosecutor could use, if he were so minded, to parry effectively his adversary's courtroom thrusts?

The trial for a man accused of raping a 15-year-old girl behind Howard County's Central Library in Columbia's Town Center will be moved to Carroll County Circuit Court.Timothy Bryan Chase, 29, will stand trial in that county after Howard Circuit Judge Diane O. Leasure ruled that pretrial publicity prohibited Chase from receiving a fair trial in Howard. No trial date has been set. Last week, Leasure granted a #F last-minute defense motion to move the trial, saying an article published in The Sun was so detailed it could prejudice potential jurors.

JACKSON, Miss. -- Three years ago, in an attempt to heal old wounds, officials reopened one of the most searing cases from the Civil Rights era: the 1963 assassination of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers.Today, the Mississippi Supreme Court hears arguments that could rip those wounds open once again.The question is whether a new murder trial of his accused assassin, Byron De La Beckwith, a 71-year-old white supremacist, should go forward or whether the murder charges, filed in 1990, should be dismissed.

OKAY, let's get this straight once and for all. There is no --en oh -- guarantee in the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution that O. J. Simpson or anybody else gets a quote fair unquote trial. The amendment says:"In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense."

WASHINGTON -- A scene outside courthouses during almost every major trial -- lawyers talking to the news reporters and cameras about their side of the case -- could become rarer in the future, if hints at a Supreme Court hearing Monday turn into reality.A barrage of sharp questions from the justices greeted a Texas law professor who was there to defend the right of attorneys to speak out in public to counteract what police and prosecutors say about their clients' alleged crimes.The court has never ruled on the scope of lawyers' constitutional right to discuss a case publicly while it is pending in court.

WASHINGTON -- In an unprecedented legal arrangement designed to bring a decade-old national trauma to closure, the Clinton administration has agreed to allow the two Libyans charged with the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 to be tried by a Scottish court in The Hague, according to U.S. officials and families of the victims.Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright is expected to notify the families in a conference call today, according to families who have been told to be available.The compromise plan calls for Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, who are allegedly Libyan intelligence agents, to be tried by a panel of Scottish judges under Scottish law at The Hague in the Netherlands, U.S. officials confirmed yesterday.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A second lawyer in Saddam Hussein's defense team was gunned down yesterday in Baghdad, calling into question the prospects that a fair trial can proceed in the current climate of violence. Adil al-Zubaidi, who was defending former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, died when three men in a car pulled up alongside his vehicle and opened fire, according to witnesses and police. Thamer al-Khuzaie, a lawyer defending Hussein's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, was slightly injured in the midday attack.