Do people involved in highly publicized court cases deserve privacy?

I’ll answer the second part of teh question.

YES, we the people have a right to know every single fact of the incident. We live in a free and educated country and we are entitled – because the courts are a public institution – to all the facts. Good or bad, we can judge for ourselves.

If it (whatever it is) is mentioned in the courtroom, it should be open for anyone to know about.

Trayvon’s family deserve some respect, I think there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed by the media and the public at large, but the family actually brought the case to the public, and public outrage brought them the action they were looking for.

I do think the public has the right to see the court proceedings.

I think all parts of evidence should be available, but the public usually does not see all the evidence, because some pieces don’t get let in by the judge.

I believe the families involved definitely deserve privacy. The didn’t ask for the crime to happen (in most cases). I think they should be able to seek justice without being harassed by the media or the public. If they want to talk, it’s up to them, but they shouldn’t be forced to do so.

As for the rest of us knowing every single fact of the incident, no, I don’t think we (general public) have a “right” to know every single detail. (I’m talking about every little thing, not just the big details.) I think the jury needs to know the facts to make a fair decision, but I think that is different than the general public being told every little detail. I also don’t think all court proceedings should be open to the public just for the safety of the victims and witnesses. It is all very dependent on the case and the situation.

If they are private people, I think they deserve to retain their privacy.

If they are going to try and milk this for every cent they can get they are going to be looked at intensely and deservedly so. Thats how being public figures works. If they want to just get on with their lives and and stay out of the public eye they need to be left alone. The media is going to try to do anything they can get away with. Reporters / journalists could care less if they are thought of as assholes.

I think the nation deserves some privacy from these cases. That is, let every case be equally accessible but ignored by the sensationalist media. Making celebrities out of criminals is not doing either of our cultures any good. There’s a reason that these cases make the news – they represent behaviour that is extremely outside the norm. Learning every detail about them is going to give everyone insight into how most people behave, and it has the side effect of making people more afraid of things that are extremely unlikely to happen to them.

I think the families deserve privacy during the trial itself. After, the transcripts and stuff should be made public, but I feel like too much media attention can screw things up in a lot of ways.

“Learning every detail about them is going to give everyone insight into how most people behave”

* not going to give everyone insight.

Americans have some very degrading traits. They like “Ultimate Fighting” which is as degrading as dog fighting or cock fighting. Both the fighters and the audience are degraded. They also like to watch car crashes, the Jerry Springer Show, and the reality shows that really entertain the least of us. A good court battle like the O.J. trial and the Zimmerman trial is also entertaining to a segment of our population. I suspect the reason they enjoy all of this degrading entertainment is because their own life is crap and they feel superior to the degradation de jour.

Depends what it is. Some things are better left in privacy.