How Pretrial Publicity Can Destroy A Case

Faculty Sponsor

Amanda Zelechoski

College

Arts and Sciences

Discipline(s)

Psychology

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 5-3-2018

Abstract

I will be arguing that the amount of pretrial publicity before the case against Casey Anthony changed the way the case was perceived, and processed. Because of all the pretrial publicity, the case was a huge part of social media coverage and therefore almost everyone in the area knew details, making it harder to choose a jury. It was compared to the OJ Simpson case because the verdict was so controversial. Had the case been a lower profile case publicly, there may have been less controversy surrounding the verdict. People speculate whether or not the verdict was correct, but I feel like they only do this because it was such a high profile case. I am arguing that if there had not been such a great amount of publicity surrounding the case before it went to court, the verdict may have been different, it may have been less controversial either way, and it may have been processed differently.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

I am a junior Psychology major at Valparaiso University. I switched to Psychology during my sophomore year because I had always been interested in criminal psychology. Originally I wanted to work with criminals in prisons and that is how I decided to switch to Psychology. This case has always interested me, because it was compared to the OJ Simpson case, another fascinating and controversial case dealing with this topic.

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