Pretrial Publicity and Due Process in Criminal Proceedings

Abstract

Much of the controversy surrounding the Warren Court centered on its willingness to federalize rules of criminal procedure. Before 1961, states were for the most part left free to operate their criminal justice systems according to locally established procedures. The Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause was used to reverse convictions in which state proceedings had been clearly unfair1 but only in rare instances were rules of general applicability established.2There were, however, justices on the Court Justice Black being the most prominent among these-who urged a different, more active course. In particular these justices argued that the Bill of Rights delineated requirements of fundamental fairness and that the Fourteenth Amendment intended to make these applicable against state action. Then almost abruptly in I9613 the Supreme Court abandoned its reticence and in a series of cases lasting until 1968 found virtually all of the procedural guarantees of the Bill of Rights to be required by the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause.4