Baltimore Radio Show, Inc. v. State

• Decision Date: 09 June 1949
• Docket Number: 170-172.
• Citation: 67 A.2d 497,193 Md. 300
• Parties: BALTIMORE RADIO SHOW, Inc. v. STATE. BALTIMORE BROADCASTING CORPORATION v. STATE. MARYLAND BROADCASTING CO. et al. v. STATE.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

67 A.2d 497

193 Md. 300

BALTIMORE RADIO SHOW, Inc. v. STATE.

BALTIMORE BROADCASTING CORPORATION v. STATE.

MARYLAND BROADCASTING CO. et al. v. STATE.

Nos. 170-172.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

June 9, 1949

Appeal from Criminal Court of Baltimore City; John B. Gray, Jr. Judge.

The Baltimore Radio Show, Inc., WFBR; the Baltimore Broadcasting Corporation, WCBM; and Maryland Broadcasting Company, WITH and another, were found guilty of contempt for broadcasting over local radio stations news dispatches relating to a person in custody of the police on a charge of murder, and they separately appeal.

Reversed.

MARKELL J., dissenting.

Hall Hammond, Atty. Gen., and Harrison L. Winter, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Bernard Wells, State's Atty., Anselm Sodaro, 1st. Asst. State's Atty. and J. Harold Grady, Asst. State's Atty., all of Baltimore, on the brief), for appellee.

William L. Marbury, Baltimore, for American Soc. of Newspaper Editors.

Elisha Hanson, Washington, D. C., Arthur B. Hanson, Washington, D. C., William K. Van Allen, Washington, D. C., for American Newspaper Publishers Ass'n.

Harry N. Baetjer, Venable, Baetjer & Howard, Edwin F. A. Morgan, Frederick W. Brune and Semmes, Bowen & Semmes, Baltimore, for A. S. Abell Co.

Don Petty, Washington, D. C., for National Ass'n of Broadcasters.

James B. Maginnis, E. Paul Mason, Jr. and J. Nicholas Shriver, Jr., Baltimore, for Junior Bar Ass'n of Baltimore City.

James Lawrence Fly, New York, Joseph I. Paper, Baltimore, John H. Skeen, Jr., Baltimore, for American Civil Liberties

Union, Inc. and American Civil Liberties Committee, Inc.

George Cochran Doub and Charles G. Page, Baltimore, for Bar Ass'n of Baltimore City.

Before MARBURY, C.J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, GRASON, HENDERSON and MARKELL, JJ.

HENDERSON Judge.

These three appeals are from separate orders on Jan. 28, 1949, of the Criminal Court of Baltimore City finding the appellants guilty of contempt, and imposing fines, for broadcasting over local radio stations certain news dispatches relating to Eugene H. James, at a time when he was in custody of the police on a charge of murder. We have been greatly assisted in the consideration of the case by the excellent arguments and briefs of counsel on both sides, as well as by the briefs of amici curiae.

On the early afternoon of July 6, 1948, Marsha Brill, an eleven year old girl, was stabbed to death by an unidentified man in the northwestern section of Baltimore, while she was at play with two other children. Because of the atrociousness of the crime, great public interest was aroused, and parents residing in the vicinity became greatly concerned for the safety of their children.

At about 10:45 P.M. on the same day, Eugene H. James was arrested and held for investigation. On the afternoon of July 8, 1948, he was taken to the scene of the crime, at which time he made an oral statement to the police admitting his guilt, and directed the police to the spot where he had buried the knife with which the murder was committed. At about 6 P.M., James was formally charged with murder at the Northern Police Station. A few hours later, James signed a written confession. Miss Taggert, the night editor of the United Press, called Hamilton R. Atkinson, Police Commissioner of Baltimore City, about 7 P.M. stating that she intended to write a story embodying the information which he would either give or verify for her. Commissioner Atkinson verified certain information already possessed by her, and gave her certain other information relative to the case. Later that evening, Commissioner Atkinson was interviewed by the Press outside his office at Police Headquarters, and in response to questions, gave further information, although he denies that he gave out a formal press release for publication.

At about 9:45 P.M. Miss Taggert placed on the teletype, operated by United Press, a dispatch concerning the case. This dispatch was received by the three radio stations and broadcast at various times during the evening, in slightly different forms. The broadcasts were capable of being heard throughout the city and in many of the counties of the State, and were heard by a substantial but indeterminate number of listeners. Similar broadcasts were made by other radio stations located within and without the state, and similar news items were published in newspapers published in Washington, D. C., Philadelphia and New York, circulating in the state. The newspapers published in Baltimore City did not publish the items complained of.

At 8:45 P.M., on July 8, 1948, the appellant Connolly broadcast over the facilities of the appellant WITH the following information:

'After three days of unrelenting hard work on the part of every man in the department, the Baltimore police have just broken the Brill murder case--broken it wide open. Police Commissioner Hamilton R. Atkinson announced only a few moments ago that a man has been arrested and formally charged with the crime--the brutal and apparently pointless stabbing of elevenyear-old Marsha Brill in the Pimlico neighborhood Tuesday afternoon. The funeral of the little murder victim was held today and hundreds of persons attended. The man now charged with the Brill girl's murder is Eugene James, a 31-year-old Negro and convicted former offender, whose home is at 3311 Paton Avenue, not far from the scene of the crime.

' The police said James not only admitted the Brill murder and another recent assault in the same area but that he went over the scene of the crime with them late this afternoon and showed them where the murder weapon was buried. It turned out to be an old kitchen carving knife. Immediately after the finding of the knife the prisoner was taken downtown to police headquarters for a formal statement. The story of how James came to be charged with the Brill murder is an account of police work at its best. James was taken into custody yesterday mainly because of his record. Police remembered that he had been charged or suspected in past years with a series of assaults and that about ten years ago he was sentenced to the Maryland Penitentiary for an attack on a ten-year-old child. The police took into account also the fact that James' home was close to the scene of the Brill crime.

' James was questioned, along with other suspects, but no information of much importance was obtained from him until today. The police did not use any force, of course, but questioned him persistantly. Then, this morning, according to the officers, James admitted an attack on a white woman recently in the same woods near where the Brill girl was slain. In that case, too, James used a knife but only to threaten his victim into submission. She was not otherwise injured. With more information supplied by James, police recovered the woman's pocketbook, which had been taken from her. Police said James was familiar with every foot of the ground on which offenses, the assault of the woman and the slaying of the girl, occurred. James is not an obvious mental case. Throughout all his questioning, said the police, he seemed, as they put it, 'quite Cute', in other words, wary. When James freely admitted the assault on the woman the police were encouraged and renewed their interrogation with renewed vigor. They felt that James had admitted the lesser assault only to throw the police off the main track, and the police felt they were close to a confession in the Brill case. They were in fact.

' A few hours later the prisoner broke again and this time it was the break that broke the Brill case. James admitted that crime also and consented to accompany the police to the scene. On the ground, said the police, he made a more detailed admission. Among those who accompanied him to the scene of the crime were the highest ranking officers of the department. They were led by Commissioner AtKinson. With him were Chief Inspector M. Joseph Wallace, Inspector Joseph Itzel, who had directed the examination of James and other suspects, and Capt. Oscar Lusby, the comparatively new commander of the Northern Police District.

'The appearance of the high ranking police officials with an obvious suspect on the scene of the crime soon drew hundreds of idle spectators and for that reason the police did not linger on the ground any longer than necessary. Instead they took James and the evidence they had accumulated downtown to Police headquarters for a formal statement. From headquarters the prisoner was taken to the Northern station. He probably will be arraigned in Northern police court tomorrow.

'The first hint that the police were close to an important break in the Brill case came with word from an officer of rank at headquarters that, while no arrests had yet been made and no charges had been placed, the police felt they had a very good suspect. James was the suspect of course. At that time he had not confessed the Brill crime, although he had admitted the earlier offense against the woman in the same neighborhood. Since the break in the case came so late in the day, the police at first were inclined to postpone making the actual charge against James until tomorrow. In view of the intense interest in the case, however, and in view of the alarm and agitation among parents and children in the area in which the crime occurred, Commissioner Atkinson decided to make the charge and the announcement immediately in order to relieve anxiety among the families in the Pimlico area.

'The Police are deserving of the utmost commendation for the comparatively quick break in the case, and the commendation is merited by every man who worked on the assignment, from the highest to the lowest in the department. From the first Commissioner Atkinson personally took charge of the

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