Jury selection began again in secret Tuesday, leading The News Courier to join other media outlets in filing a motion seeking to intervene and open proceedings in Limestone Sheriff Mike Blakely’s criminal trial.

By afternoon, Judge Pamela Baschab had changed her mind, reversing her previous order and allowing reporters to be in the courtroom.

“We joined the other media outlets in this filing because the public has a right to know what is going on in the courtroom, especially when it involves the corruption trial of an elected official,” said Katherine Miller, publisher of The News Courier. “Barring the media and the public from a courtroom should be a rare occurrence; if there is a case to made for it, it should be done well in advance of jury selection.”

State and federal supreme courts have held that jury selections, or voir dire, are part of a criminal trial and thus should be open to the public, including news media. However, as hundreds of potential jurors set to gather this week for the start of Blakely’s trial, reporters and the public were kept from the proceedings. A court bailiff was quoted as telling reporters that Judge Pamela Baschab had ordered the ban to protect potential jurors, but no court order or documentation explaining why had been filed in the state’s public records system as of Tuesday morning.

“It’s basic concept that you can’t expect people to have confidence in trials if you’re going to exclude them from a major part of the trial,” said Dennis Bailey, who serves as a legal representative for the Alabama Press Association and filed the motion on behalf of several news outlets Tuesday.

Media request

The motion had asked for voir dire in Blakely’s trial to be halted and restarted so that as much as possible can be made public, or for the Court to at least “halt secret proceedings going forward and provide … a transcript of the proceedings that were held in secret.”

Bailey said there are instances in which portions of voir dire can be held in secret, but that generally involves advance notice, articulated reasoning and a chance for the decision to be argued — none of which had happened in the Blakely trial.

“That’s one of the major flaws here, in my opinion,” Bailey said. “… There was no motion, no order, no finding as to why that was necessary.”

Blakely has been elected to 10 consecutive terms as Limestone County’s sheriff, making him the longest-running sheriff in Alabama. He is accused of 11 theft and ethics charges, including theft of county and campaign funds and using his position to obtain interest-free loans.

Jury selection began Monday at the Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives but was moved to the Limestone County Courthouse that afternoon, where it continued Tuesday. It is the second time that jury selection has taken place in the trial, with the first jury being struck the day before the coronavirus pandemic led to the shutdown of courts statewide.

The News Courier will have more information as it becomes available.