When should the names of juveniles accused of murder be made public? Forty years ago, under West Virginia state law, the answer was ‘never.’ It was illegal for a news organization to make public the name of anyone under 18 accused of a crime.
Generally there are good reasons for keeping the names of juvenile offenders private, including a better chance for rehabilitation. But who has the duty to keep a name quiet? A newspaper? And would that be true for a teenager accused of murder, for which there is no chance of rehabilitation?
After a school shooting in 1977, editors of the West Virginia Daily Mail decided that a murder charge against a 14 year old should be made public. A county prosecutor brought indictments against the paper’s employees for violating state law, and the paper fought the case to the US Supreme Court, which agreed that such state laws were unconstitutional prior restraints on the press in violation of the First Amendment. The duty to keep a juvenile’s name confidential belonged to law enforcement, not the press, the court said.
See: Daily Mail editorial Feb 8, 2018
Washington & Lee case summary
