Casey Anthony Jurors in Hiding, as Media Handle With Care

ST. PETERSBURG – The media backed off, and jurors weren't talking.

That was the unusual detente reached Tuesday between Florida news outlets and the men and women who deliberated in the sensational Casey Anthony murder trial, after their names were released to the public.

Most Tampa Bay news outlets, including Patch.com, chose not to disclose the jurors' identities without permission, because of threats that followed Anthony's acquittal in the death of daughter Caylee. 

The 12 jurors and five alternates also avoided talking to the media. Many appeared to be in hiding or had left town, neighbors and associates said Tuesday. All are from Pinellas County.

In Gulfport, police stepped up patrols in the neighborhood of an alternate juror. Authorities said that other municipalities were taking similar precautions.

Safety concerns led Circuit Court Judge Belvin Perry to withhold the names of jurors for three months after Anthony's acquittal. They were made available Tuesday at the Pinellas County Courthouse.

Patch.com did not disclose the identities Tuesday but did obtain the jurors' names and addresses, which include St. Petersburg, South Pasadena, Clearwater, Gulfport and Oldsmar. Patch reporters were working to reach out to jurors to ask if they would share their stories and disclose their names.

By contrast, Bay News 9 featured all 17 names and had "a table with full names, occupations, marital status and number of children for each juror and the alternates. Bay News 9, the Bright House cable news channel, picked up the story from sister station News13."

The organization has since removed the table and replaced it with a public message: "Some of the jurors may want to speak to the media today. If and when they do, Bay News 9 will release their names to the public and bring you what they have to say."

Julie Moos, director of Poynter Online and Poynter Publications, wrote in an article Tuesday that the media seemed divided on what to do. She noted that the media's role is "to reveal rather than conceal. However, it is also our responsibility to minimize harm."

Moos believes that it is important for news organizations to communicate with readers to explain how they make these ethical decisions.

"First, whatever your decision, share it with readers or viewers. Several local news orgs noted in their stories that they were not identifying jurors, and that's helpful," she said. "It's even more helpful to take it one step further and explain why."

Disclosing the names of jurors posed an ethical dilemma for Florida media outlets, which typically rush to be first to publish news and break stories.

Bill Mitchell, who leads Entrepreneurial and International Programs at Poynter, explained that journalists need to consider three principles when faced with ethical decisions: "telling as much of the truth as possible, acting as independently as possible, and minimizing harm.

"It's that third principle – minimizing harm – that holds particular relevance in the case of identifying the Anthony jurors," Mitchell said.