U.S. v. Sherman, s. 78-2492

Decision Date14 September 1978
Docket Number78-2493,Nos. 78-2492,s. 78-2492
Parties4 Media L. Rep. 1433 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. John William SHERMAN, and Therese Ann Coupez, Defendants; Seattle Times Company, a Delaware Corporation, and John Arthur Wilson, Petitioners-Appellants. SEATTLE TIMES COMPANY, a Delaware Corporation, and John Arthur Wilson, Petitioners, v. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR the WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON, Respondent.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

P. Cameron DeVore (argued), of Davis, Wright, Todd, Reise & Jones, Seattle, Wash., for defendants.

Jerald Olson, Asst. U. S. Atty. (argued), Seattle, Wash., for plaintiff.

APPEAL AND PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS FROM THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON.

Before TRASK, GOODWIN, and TANG, Circuit Judges.

TANG, Circuit Judge.

This opinion explains the circumstances under which this court issued its order of July 24, 1978 granting petitioner's application for emergency relief, and the reasons such relief was appropriate.

On July 12, 1978, a jury in the Western District of Washington returned a guilty verdict against John William Sherman and Therese Ann Coupez. Sherman and Coupez had been accused of armed bank robbery, and each had admitted the acts charged in the indictment, but each claimed that the acts were justified based on political principles. During the course of the trial, Coupez had written to the jurors at their homes, urging them to ignore the judge's instructions. Sherman and Coupez were members of the George Jackson Brigade, a revolutionary organization devoted to destroying the governments of the United States and the State of Washington. The Brigade claimed responsibility for a series of bombings and bank robberies in the Seattle area; its activities received widespread publicity. The Sherman-Coupez trial also received considerable attention from the Seattle news media.

After receiving the verdict, the trial judge made a series of remarks from the bench which 1) forbade the jurors from discussing the case further with anyone, 2) told the jurors that they would be protected from harassment and 3) ordered everyone, including the news media, to stay away from the jurors. Members of the news media, including representatives of the Seattle Times (petitioner in this action), were present in the courtroom when these remarks were made.

After the trial judge's oral pronouncements, members of the news media and their counsel attempted to persuade the judge to modify or retract his order, but were unsuccessful. The judge also refused to put the order in writing. The Seattle Times then filed a notice of appeal, and in the alternative, a petition for a writ of mandamus. This court heard argument on the afternoon of July 24, 1978, and immediately afterwards issued its order vacating that portion of the district court's order that prohibited the news media from contacting and interviewing jurors. 1

The first question which had to be answered was the jurisdiction of this court to hear this matter. Two alternatives were presented: direct appeal and mandamus. We decided that there is no remedy on direct appeal, but mandamus would lie. The appeal was dismissed July 24, 1978.

In our opinion, there is no jurisdiction to hear an appeal. The Seattle Times was not a party to the action below and therefore lacks standing to bring an appeal. See 9 Moore's Federal Practice, P 203.06 (1975). The trial judge's statement that his order applied to "everyone" including the news media is insufficient to make the Seattle Times a party.

Nor are we persuaded that this is a collateral order under the doctrine of Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949). We are aware that the Third Circuit, en banc, has held a similar order was an appealable final order under Cohen; United States v. Schiavo, 504 F.2d 1 (3rd Cir. 1974) Cert. denied 419 U.S. 1096, 95 S.Ct. 690, 42 L.Ed.2d 688. Schiavo is distinguishable since it involved a pre-trial order while this case involved an order issued after the trial was completed. Further, the decision in Schiavo is based on the court's supervisory powers, a concept as compatible with mandamus as with appeal, See La Buy v. Howes Leather Co., 352 U.S. 249, 77 S.Ct. 309, 1 L.Ed.2d 290 (1957). The decision of the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Gurney, 558 F.2d 1202 (5th Cir. 1977), Cert. denied sub nom. Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Krentzman, --- U.S. ----, 98 S.Ct. 1606, 56 L.Ed.2d 59 (1978), is also distinguishable. Gurney involved the media's access to various materials produced during the trial and is not an order regulating media conduct after the trial had concluded.

This court has authority to issue a writ of mandamus under 28 U.S.C. § 1651, the All Writs Act. Seattle Times has standing to seek the writ under the tests set forth in Data Processing Service v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 90 S.Ct. 827, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970); the Seattle Times' ability to gather the news has been interfered with (injury in fact) and such interference is clearly within the ambit of the First Amendment (zone of interests). Two recent circuit court cases have held that mandamus, rather than appeal is the proper remedy in similar situations. See Central South Carolina Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists v. Martin, 556 F.2d 706 (4th Cir. 1977) Cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1022, 98 S.Ct. 749, 54 L.Ed.2d 771 (1978); CBS, Inc. v. Young, 522 F.2d 234 (6th Cir. 1975). We agree with the reasoning of those cases.

Because the petitioners have standing and the court has authority to issue the writ does not mean that the writ will necessarily issue. Mandamus is a drastic remedy and is to be used only in extraordinary circumstances; in large measure the issuance of the writ is a matter of the court's discretion. To guide in the exercise of that discretion, this court has formulated five factors which should be considered:

1) The party seeking the writ has no other adequate means, such as a direct appeal, to attain the relief he or she desires, 2) the petitioner will be damaged or prejudiced in a way not correctable on appeal, 3) the district court's order is clearly erroneous as a matter of law, 4) the district court's order is an oft-repeated error, or manifests a persistent disregard of the federal rules, and 5) the district court's order raises new and important problems, or issues of first impression.

Bauman v. United States District Court, 557 F.2d 650, 654-55 (9th Cir. 1977) (citations omitted).

The first, second and fifth factors clearly weigh in favor of issuance of the writ. As shown above, we believe there is no remedy on appeal. The case clearly raises important problems of First Amendment law. While there are several cases dealing with restraints on the press before or during a trial, we have been...

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  • Wheeler v. U.S., 79-2696
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)
    • April 3, 1981
    ...area. In considering an order prohibiting jurors from speaking with anyone, including newsmen, the Ninth Circuit panel in United States v. Sherman, supra at 1361, stated v. United States, 576 F.2d 432 (2d Cir. 1978) (court upheld order requiring jurors to report to FBI if anyone questioned ......
  • PG Publ'g Co. v. Aichele
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit)
    • January 15, 2013
    ...information may work a prior restraint on speech, see In re Express–News Corp., 695 F.2d 807, 810 (5th Cir.1982); United States v. Sherman, 581 F.2d 1358, 1361 (9th Cir.1978), this principle is not unlimited. For [i]t is one thing to say that a journalist is free to seek out sources of info......
  • U.S. v. Hubbard, s. 79-2312
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia)
    • February 9, 1981
    ...mandamus as the appropriate vehicle for the assertion of third party interests in criminal proceedings. United States v. Sherman, 581 F.2d 1358, 1360-61 (9th Cir. 1978); CBS, Inc. v. Young, 522 F.2d 234, 237 (6th Cir. 1975). See also Martindell v. Int'l Tel. & Tel. Corp., 594 F.2d 291, 294 ......
  • United States v. Franklin, F Cr 82-16.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 7th Circuit. United States District Court of Northern District of Indiana
    • August 30, 1982
    ...of prior restraint under the First Amendment and the exercise of judicial power in this context was considered in United States v. Sherman, 581 F.2d 1358 (9th Cir. 1978). An earlier case in that circuit was Bryson v. U. S., 238 F.2d 657 (9th Cir. 1956), which appears to be in the same vein ......
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