Attorney Mark McDaniel discussing the legal ramifications of the Decatur officer's leaked body camera footage.
It's been almost six months since the deadly Decatur police-involved shooting of Steve Perkins.
While many of us have seen the Ring doorbell video from the early morning of Sept. 29, the body camera video from the officers involved has not been made public until Wednesday.
A political website leaked the video creating many questions regarding the legal ramifications as a temporary gag order was issued in the case of former Decatur police officer Bailey Marquette.
WAAY 31 has decided to not air the video or show it online.
Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson says with the gag order in place he couldn't comment on the body camera footage being released, but says he will be able to speak his mind in open court at the gag order hearing on April 8.
Criminal and personal injury attorney Mark McDaniel tells WAAY 31, despite the gag order being temporary, no one included in the court order should've released any information about this case. He says gag orders are put in place to make sure a defendant gets a fair and impartial trial.
McDaniel says the more pretrial publicity is out there, the more likely the jury pool will be tainted.
“If a gag order has been put into place, and evidence has been released by somebody, I can assure you that the judge would be very concerned about that and would be wanting to know who did it and why they did it,” McDaniel said. “And would certainly be having a hearing on that issue I guarantee you.”
McDaniel says when you have a high profile case such as this one, you'll naturally get a lot of publicity. But now with the body camera footage of Perkins death circulating on the internet, McDaniel says this leaked video could affect the possibility of a fair trial in the circuit.
McDaniel says when the striking of a jury begins, one of the first questions the jury will be asked is how many of them have read, seen, or heard anything about the case.
“You ask each of those prospective jurors one at a time: ‘Did you see it, what impact did it have on you, did you make a decision on the case based on that?’” McDaniel said. “There’s other evidence in the case but a defense lawyers going to be very interested in this.”
McDaniel says looking ahead, finding impartial jurors in Morgan County may prove to be a challenge.
“If the pre-trial publicity is so extensive that you cannot get a fair trial in that district, in that circuit, then the defendant's lawyer would file a motion for a change of venue,” McDaniel said.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency tells WAAY 31 they did not release the body camera video to anyone other than the district attorney's office on Dec. 26.
The Circuit Court Judge Charles Elliott who is handling the gag order was not in Wednesday to provide a comment about the potential violation of the order.
