Can adverse publicity affect the impartiality of a jury?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from R. v Haevischer, 2013 BCSC 2014 (CanLII):
In Phillips v. Nova Scotia (Commission of Inquiry into the Westray Mine Tragedy), 1995 CanLII 86 (SCC), [1995] 2 S.C.R. 97 at para. 130, Cory J. commented that the alleged partiality of jurors arising from adverse pre-trial publicity “can only be measured in the context of the highly developed system of safeguards which have evolved to in order to prevent such a problem”. It is only when these safeguards are inadequate to guarantee impartiality that there will be a breach of s. 11(d) of the Charter.
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