Lady Justice is supposed to be blind.
Prosecutors and Mercer County Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson, however, may be slipping off the blindfold and tipping the scales in an upcoming murder trial, legal experts said.
Maurice Skillman
Smithson has indicated he will allow prospective jurors in the murder retrial of two Trenton men accused of gunning down off-duty Mercer County corrections officer Carl Batie to be questioned about whether they watched “Making a Murderer.”
The hit Netflix docuseries chronicled the life of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin convict who has been held out as the poster child for flaws in the criminal justice system.
Prosecutors want to know if prospective jurors have watched the show, and if so, whether it has shaped their views of the criminal justice system.
However, one legal expert said asking such a specific question targets jurors who may be skeptical of law enforcement and the criminal justice system, which could impact the fairness of the retrial for suspected killers Maurice Skillman and Hykeem Tucker.
“You’re giving the prosecutor an extra tool for jurors to strike,” said Jules Epstein, law professor and director of advocacy programs at Temple University Beasley School of Law.
While Epstein stressed the judge can allow for the question to be asked of prospective jurors, he said a more pragmatic route exists for prosecutors to zero in on potential jury bias.
Joseph Coronato told The Trentonian in a recent phone interview his prosecutors do not ask about “Making a Murderer” in homicide cases in Ocean County, nor was he aware of prosecutors in other New Jersey counties being allowed to ask about the influence the show has or hasn’t had.
“That may be somewhat fact-generated.,” Coronato said. “The facts of that case may be similar to what is on the TV show that [the judge] feels it’s appropriate.”
Smithson admitted, during a recent pretrial conference, he has never watched the show.
But after hearing Assistant Prosecutor James Scott’s rendition of what the show depicts, Smithson felt it is relevant to ask prospective jurors in Mercer County, despite no connections between the circumstances in “Making a Murderer” and Batie’s murder.
Batie was a corrections officer who was shot in the head on the balcony of the Baldassari Regency banquet hall in Trenton in 2012. He and his brother were attending a party celebrating the re-election of President Barack Obama.
Prosecutors in Trenton suggested Skillman used a TEC-9 to spray up the balcony, while Tucker acted as a lookout. The authorities believed Batie was an innocent bystander of a gang-related shooting.
Attorneys for Skillman and Tucker made clear to jurors in the first trial that no evidence suggested their clients knew Batie or that he was targeted because he was a corrections officer.
Hykeem Tucker
Compare that with the case of Avery, a Wisconsin man who spent 18 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of rape.
Released from prison after being cleared by DNA evidence, Avery sued the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department for $36 million.
Two years later, he was charged with killing Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old freelance photographer who worked for the magazine Auto Trader. She went to his family’s salvage yard to take pictures of a van on Halloween in 2005.
Avery and Halbach had been acquainted as she had been out to the property to photograph other cars, Wisconsin prosecutors said.
They said at trial Avery phoned the magazine the day of Halbach’s disappearance and requested her for the photo shoot.
The woman’s remains were eventually found in a burn pit on Avery’s property. Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted of killing Halbach and are serving life sentences.
That is one example of the stark differences between the murders.
Scott, the Mercer County prosecutor, also admitted the investigation into Halbach’s disappearance in “rural Wisconsin” was not the way investigators operate in New Jersey.
Yet, Scott, who didn’t hide his disdain for the filmmakers’ slant, still wants prospective jurors in Trenton questioned about the show.
The prosecutor will get his way, barring a sudden reversal by Smithson.
But legal experts said Mercer County prosecutors should be careful because the question could open up Pandora’s Box.
“Normally, I would not ask anybody about a TV show,” Coronato said. “Once you say ‘TV show,’ how many cops TV shows are there? Where do you stop, once you open up that door? Where do you go with that?”
Epstein said prospective jurors who were unaware of the show may become curious and watch it.
“Why are you stirring up these waters?” he said.