Judge Marshall’s amended/expanded order stated that “The attorneys for any interested party in this case, including the prosecuting attorney, defense attorney, and any attorney representing a witness, victim, or victim‘s family, as well as the parties to the above-entitled action, including but not limited to investigators, law enforcement personal, and agents for the prosecuting attorney or defense attorney, are prohibited from making extrajudicial statements (written or oral) concerning this case, except, without additional comment, a quotation from or reference to the official public record of the case.”
According to Gray, the order is “facially overbroad and vague.” The filing claims it is unconstitutional to stop victims’ families and attorneys from speaking with the media.
Gray wrote that because the victims’ families are not parties to the case they shouldn’t be muffled.
“Properly construed, the Order does not apply to the Victims’ families in this matter,” Gray argued in a court filing Friday. “The only ‘parties’ to the case are the People and the Defendant. Accordingly, as non-party citizens, the Victims’ surviving family members are free to speak to the public and the media under the First Amendment to the Constitution. Simply put, their rights to freedom of speech cannot be restricted through a judicial prior restraint.”