This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A U.S. District Court judge has determined that Brian David Mitchell can get a fair trial in Utah, based on the judge's review of questionnaires filled out by 330 potential jurors for the upcoming kidnapping trial.
Mitchell's defense team has claimed the trial, set to begin Nov. 1 in Salt Lake City, should be moved to another state because of the intense news coverage of the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart.
But Judge Dale Kimball, in a decision filed Thursday, rejected the need for a change in venue, saying that "while some jurors appear to have prejudged the issues in this case, there are far more who have not."
Kimball added that "many more jurors than are necessary to seat a jury appear to be undecided or open-mined" regarding both the facts of the case and whether they could consider a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Also Thursday, a coalition of local news media, including The Salt Lake Tribune, filed a motion requesting immediate access to a blank juror questionnaire, as well as "prompt access" to the completed questionnaires, once personal identification information has been redacted.
Kimball initially had said he was inclined to release redacted copies of the complete questionnaires, according to the media's motion.
But both the defense and prosecution requested the completed questionnaires not be released until after a verdict is rendered in the case.
The defense has no objection to immediate release of the blank questionnaire, but prosecutors object to providing even the blank questionnaire until after a jury is selected, according to the motion.
The media motion asserts that "the press and public have a presumptive right of access to all phases of voir dire [jury selection] — written and verbal."
The closure of voir dire during the Martha Stewart stock sale case in 2004 was later reversed on appeal, according to the motion. Prosecutors had argued that later release of transcripts satisfied media access rights. But an appeals court said "the ability to see and hear a proceeding as it unfolds is a vital component of the First Amendment right of access."
Mitchell, 56, and his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, 64, were charged with abducting the then 14-year-old Smart on June 5, 2002, from her Salt Lake City home. They were arrested in March 2003 while walking in Sandy with the girl, whom investigators say Mitchell wanted to make his plural wife.
Barzee pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Mitchell has been found competent to stand trial. But his attorneys will claim at trial that he was insane at the time of the abduction.