Navigating Ethics in True Crime

True Crime Pays, and great damage is sometimes done as a result.

Court records are mostly public information, and for good reason. Like anything else though, public access to court proceedings and open records can be abused when money and clout are involved. 

The only power that most of us have in the courtroom on any given trial date is who we vote for with regard to local sheriffs, judges, district attorneys, etc. But we can also fight to enact positive changes to our state and federal laws, and that is precisely what needs to happen with regard to the wholesale purchase and retail sale of 11-year old Gannon Stauch’s autopsy photos in Colorado’s case against Letecia Stauch.

I’m not a religious woman, but this paraphrased line from Pope John Paul II, written at the turn of our current century, still hits fairly hard: "Journalism, with its immense and direct influence on public opinion, cannot be guided by economic forces alone. Instead, it must be regarded as a task that is, in a certain sense, sacred. It should be carried out with full awareness that a great and powerful means of communication has been entrusted to you for the good of all."