The Denver Post
Lawyer critiques news media
Tuesday, November 02, 2004 -
Pamela Mackey,who defended basketball star Kobe Bryant this year against sexual-assault charges, said she wants budding journalists to learn from the "media circus" that the high-profile case generated.
"Please remember the presumption of innocence," Mackey told a group of journalism students Monday at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "Not everyone who is arrested is guilty. If you were arrested, you would want the press to presume your innocence." Mackey, who earned a journalism degree from CU, spoke to about 50 students about the "astonishing" amount of media coverage of the case, which ended with the charges against Bryant being dropped in November. Mackey also is representing Bryant in a pending civil case. She said that despite the international media coverage the case received, both she and Bryant "very carefully did not want to try this case in the press." "We simply did not talk to the press," she said. "It seemed to work for us. Our goal was to have a minimum amount of information disseminating from the case." She added that she was "not terribly successful" in keeping all the case details private and admitted "the coverage ultimately benefited my client." She left a wish list of how she would like journalists to act and react to a case such as Bryant's. "I would love to see the press do better at simply understanding the (court) procedure and process," she said. "Take the time to understand what's involved in a criminal case. Please, be careful; report both sides." Staff writer Heath Urie can be reached at 303-820-1202 or hurie@denverpost.com . |