Originally published in Case Comment, pages 109 - 112, of the Massachusetts Law Review.

Introduction -

"One of the rightful boasts of Western civilization is that the state has the burden of establishing guilt solely on the basis of evidence produced in court and under circumstances assuring an accused all the safeguards of a fair procedure. These rudimentary conditions for determining guilt are ineveitably wanting if the jury which is to sit in judgment on a fellow human being comes to its task with its mind ineradicably poisoned against him. How can fallible men and women reach a disinterested verdict based exclusively on what they heared in court when, before they entered the jury box, their minds were saturated by press and radio for months preceding by matter designated to establish the guilt of the accused. A conviction so secured obviously constitutes a denial of due process of law in its most rudimentary conception."

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