Ethics Question: When Is It Enough?

Quite a bit of discussion this morning in the newsroom on the graphic testimony from Dr. Lisa Kohler, the Summit County Medical Examiner, on the condition of Jessie Marie Davis' body when it was discovered after nine days of exposure. This is coverage you will not hear on our radio stations, and that's our choice.

The audio from today's testimony in Stark County Common Pleas Court in The State v Bobby Cutts, Jr. is very specific and not at all atypical of what any Medical Examiner or Coroner would testify to on the condition of a body and resulting autopsy procedure; anyone who's watching any of the CSI programs can figure that out. The difference is real versus Hollywood, and whether it really matters that those of following the Cutts case through broadcast reports (radio and television) should hear this testimony.

We will not use the graphic, disturbing autopsy audio on our broadcast reports. This material (condition of organs, viewing of Jessie's unborn child, etc.) doesn't leave much to the imagination and for the purposes of the official court record that's a good thing. For the purposes of reporting the case to the general public outside the courtroom, however, I'm not sure it is appropriate.

The testimony, while necessary for the jury, can be paraphrased for the sake of an audience that doesn't have the ability to control whether or not they hear or see it. If you are monitoring the case through online reports, you are in control of listening; when you are in the car a "...this graphic audio may be disturbing..." with a two-second warning to hit the switch offers little if in fact no choice at all for the listener.

The key issue in Kohler's testimony is not the condition of the body; we get that. If you don't, wait until summer and perform your own experiment by leaving dinner outside for nine days. The key issue is just why it has been so difficult for the experts to pinpoint the exact cause of death, and those questions can be answered in a fashion that doesn't require us to have advanced medical degrees or a lust for the excessively disturbing. It's a criminal trial, not another episode of the SAW movies.

Bottom line: if you want to hear it, you choose to click on the link; if you are in the car, washing the dishes, or listening at work we don't need to invade your space with the nitty-gritty. The content depends on the context it is presented in this case, and our judgment is to err on the side of the listener.

That difference of control is paramount.

On Sources & Reporting

I surely don't want to add the "we told you so" to such a horrible case...but it IS worth noting the reporting from AkronNewsNow and WAKR, WKYC's Eric Mansfield, 19 Action News team Sharon Reed and Ed Gallick, the Beacon Journal's Phil Trexler and the Canton Repository's team was pretty much right on the money in the Jessie Marie Davis case.

You may have missed today's widely-reported news on the filing from the Stark County Prosecutor with details on just what happened the day her body was found at the Top O' The World park site.


That day is still vivid in my mind; Toni Cicone and Joe Jastrzemski on WAKR, Kristen Russo's story on AkronNewsNow and 19 Action News anchor Sharon Reed first reported Bobby Cutts had confessed but our sources weren't holding news conferences -- that was two hours to come later. Eric Mansfield added critical details known only to investigators and his sources, including the report that Cutts himself led police to the site but at the time his report was dismissed.



Turns out he -- and other reporters -- were right.

Prosecutors, police and defense lawyers for Cutts and confessed accomplice Myisha Ferrell followed a self-imposed gag order before the case ever went before a judge, carefully limiting information in the case. It was a textbook example of controlling media we're now seeing play out in Chicago in the Stacey Peterson case, another high-profile missing woman that lept from the police blotter to the crime-and-punishment nightly TV lineup with a life of it's own.

There's plenty of room for debate on the treatment afforded these cases and the reporting style but what clearly isn't up for much debate now is that local reporters who trusted their sources acted responsibly, in large measure, in their reporting during the heat of the moment. Today's news reported first by the Canton Repository includes the now-confirmed truth from Prosecutor Ferraro's office: Bobby led them to Jessie's body.

The next step: will prosecutors take the death penalty off the table in exchange for a plea agreement? Ferrell took the deal, providing the State with damning testimony against Cutts and my gut tells me the filing by the Cutts defense team challenging the death penalty specification is positioning to force the prosecution hand on proving intent. If the capital spec holds, it puts more pressure on Cutts to accept a plea bargain if Jessie's family tells prosecutors they would be supportive. That's a question the family has been firm in side-stepping, and with good reason: it would weaken the case against Cutts to pull this legal weapon from their quiver.