MA: A suppressed statement can’t be kept from the press

A suppressed statement cannot be suppressed from the press under the First Amendment. Commonwealth v. Chism, 2017 Mass. LEXIS 4 (Jan. 4, 2017):

The issue on appeal is whether a Superior Court judge committed an error of law or abused his discretion in denying a defendant’s motion to impound a video recording and transcript of a police interview with the defendant that was the subject of a motion to suppress and that was subsequently suppressed. We conclude that the judge applied the correct legal standard in deciding that motion. We also conclude that, where the judge considered both the presumption of public access to judicial records and the defendant’s right to a trial decided by a fair and impartial jury, and where he subsequently forbade the duplication of the video recording and transcript, the judge did not abuse his discretion in denying the motion.