Defense Lawyer Seeks Raw Video from A&E Reality Crime Show
Another legal controversy is unfolding that involves the A&E reality show The First 48.
A North Carolina criminal defense lawyer wants to review footage shot for the show as part of his defense of an accused murderer, the Charlotte Observer reports. The First 48 focuses on the first two days of a criminal investigation, and has been the subject of legal fights in several cases.
In the latest case, Charlotte lawyer Jeremy Smith argues the show was gathering information on behalf of the police department and is part of the “prosecutorial agency” in the case against his client, 19-year-old murder suspect Jonathan Fitzgerald. He is seeking tapes of the crime scene, investigative interviews and the capture of his client, the story says.
Lawyers for the TV show claim the tapes are protected under a North Carolina shield law that protects journalists’ information unless it’s essential to the defendant’s case and is unavailable from other sources. Tapes of Fitzerald’s confession were already turned over to the defense by police, lawyers for the program say.
The case is one of several involving legal squabbles over the show. In one case, a Tennessee judge ruled that a murder suspect’s incriminating statements to The First 48 couldn’t be shown at his trial. In another, the family of a 7-year-old girl killed in a police raid taped by the show sued the city of Detroit and the police department; some observers speculated that the taping had caused police to be overzealous. In yet another case, a judge let a conviction stand even though a juror confessed to brushing up on the case by watching a YouTube video from the program.
