I had just discovered shocking evidence on the internet. She was the star witness in a murder trial against three boys, including her ex-boyfriend, secretly blogging about it, and telling a different story than what she told the jury. Weirdly, nobody else in court seemed to know about this. Outrageously, no one did.
In the newsroom, our first inclination was to publish immediately. But the more I discussed with my editors, the more I wanted to wait. As I say in this episode of True Crime Byline: “I just said, look, if we publish the fact that the star witness is a vampire before the jury starts deliberating and while they’re still reading the newspaper, we’re in contempt of court, and that’s not only morally and legally wrong, it’s like scary to me.”Article content
We published as soon as the jury was sequestered. That night, after reading my story, the judge declared a shocking mistrial, averting a miscarriage of justice and preventing a wrongful conviction. Listen to Episode 2 of True Crime Byline to find out what happened.True Crime Byline is a new podcast by Postmedia News and Antica Productions.