"A consortium of 13 media companies, including The Associated Press, is challenging efforts to seal certain documents in the second-degree murder case of the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing Trayvon Martin," the AP reported today.
"Both sides also say they worry that witnesses will be harassed if their names are released," the AP noted. "The State and Defendant wish to be able to receive a fair trial and try this case in the courtroom and not in the media," prosecutors argued in a legal motion presented to Seminole County Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr., NBC Miami's Edward B. Colby reported last Thursday.
The interests of justice probably dictate sealing the records so that the jury pool is not tainted, particularly given how atrociously the media were in skewing initial coverage of the story, with one network in particular, NBC, editing audiotape to make Zimmerman sound racist.
