BOSTON
— A Superior Court judge was justified when he sealed the names of
jurors in a gang-related murder case because the jurors feared gang
reprisals, the state's highest court has ruled.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled unanimously on April 5 that Bristol
Superior Court Judge Gary Nickerson properly withheld the names and
addresses of jurors from the news media after Manuel Silva was
acquitted of murder in 2005.
A prosecutor and the editor of The Standard-Times of New
Bedford, which had requested the jurors names, said the ruling opened
the door for other jury lists to be withheld by judges.
See AP story at First Amendment Center