Before a trial, pervasive media coverage can taint the jury pool. Fortunately, high profile cases frequently receive a change of venue in America. The 1992 trial of LAPD defendants in the Rodney King incident was moved outside Los Angeles County. The 1997 trial of Timothy McVeigh was moved from Oklahoma to Colorado. The 1999 trial of NYPD defendants in the Amadou Diallo case was moved to Albany. The 2002 cases of the Beltway snipers were moved to the southeastern Virginia. It is virtually impossible for all jurors to be totally ignorant of the facts and issues of a case before they are seated. Over time, on a local level, there are many cases where defendants may have benefited from a change of venue. This Indicator is about our country becoming afflicted by full-borne, media-hyped, politically prejudiced juries.

By 2007, the global technological capacity to transmit information was the equivalent of 174 newspapers per person per day. In the Information Age, any concerted media effort to taint a future jury through pretrial distortion is only limited by your fellow citizen’s willingness to pay no attention to the news. In that light, the danger here may be debatable.