Double standard on jury-pool pollution?
Yesterday, the Chronicle ran what was effectively a press release from Mike DeGuerin, the attorney for former TSU president Priscilla Slade:
The lawyer for fired Texas Southern University President Priscilla Slade accused Harris County's district attorney of making "reckless, political and unprofessional" comments about the indicted former official.
"It has the tendency to pollute the jury pool," attorney Mike DeGeurin said Thursday after Slade made her first court appearance since being indicted last week on two felony charges.
DeGeurin said Slade, who is charged with misapplication of fiduciary property, was "elevating TSU where it ought to be" before she was fired in June.
I'm relatively skeptical about claims that such basic comments on cases significantly "pollute" the jury pool, although I understand why some people might believe it.
However, when Mayor White and his wife Andrea (who is an attorney) very publicly suggested that their daughter was improperly arrested for driving under the influence after earlier deciding to try the case in the public sphere, the same Chronicle reporter did not round up a quote from anyone who thought the couple's public comments might pollute the jury pool.
Why treat the two instances differently?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/12/06 04:31 PM | Houston Chronicle | Print | Comments (4)
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