An attorney for the father in the case of the 13 tortured children has raised the possibility of moving the parents' trial because press coverage has made it too difficult to find an impartial jury for the torture suspects.
In a court motion filed in advance of a Wednesday court hearing, Deputy Public Defender David Macher said he was concerned that "extraordinary" press coverage of the Turpin case may taint the jury pool in Riverside County, Calif., against the parents.
David, 57, and Louise Turpin, 49, were arrested Jan. 14 for allegedly starving and torturing their 13 children. Their case has received constant attention from local, national and even international press organizations ever since.
“The frequent appearance of photographs or video images of the Turpins in the media may taint potential jurors, prejudice them against the Turpins and make it necessary to explore a possible motion for a change of venue,” Macher wrote in a court motion.
Press coverage is a common concern for defense attorneys in high-profile cases, but courts generally protect the jury pool in two ways. First, anyone who knows too much about the case from media coverage is filtered out through detailed questioning during jury selection. Second, if a case gets so much attention that finding an impartial jury is out of the question, a judge can move the trial to another county, where the public has been exposed to less media coverage
In this case, the Turpins' attorneys haven't actually asked to move the trial yet, but Macher raised the possibility in a motion that sought to ban cameras from a court hearing Wednesday. Riverside County Judge Emma Smith approved four cameras for the hearing anyway.
The hearing has been set to consider prosecutors' request for a protective order, which would bar the Turpins from communicating with their children. Defense attorneys are not expected to oppose the order, which is routine in cases like this one, and the hearing is likely to last only a few minutes.
The Turpins were arrested after their 17-year-old daughter escaped out of a window at the Perris, Calif., house and called for help. Police who responded to the scene discovered that the Turpin's 13 children, ages 2 to 29, had been held captive in inhumane conditions, probably for years. Prosecutors have alleged that the Turpins beat, strangled, staved and chained their kids for months at a time.From USA today