Lawrence Delisle v. Jessie Rivers, Warden

MARTIN and Judges DAUGHTREY, COLE, CLAY and GILMAN.

Rightly acknowledging that all of the jurors knew details about DeLisle’s case from TV, radio and newspapers in Detroit, and that five jurors knew details of the involuntary confession, our Court notes that the *390media attention was “intense” and “inflammatory.” But what makes DeLisle’s criminal trial and conviction rise to the level of unconstitutionality is not simply the sustained pervasive publicity or the fact that DeLisle suffered a trial by TV cameras, radio and newspapers. It is rather that the Michigan judiciary itself judges elected…