Partington v. Bugliosi

56 F.3d 1147 23 Media L. Rep. 1929 Earle A. PARTINGTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Vincent T. BUGLIOSI; Bruce B. Henderson; W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.; Random House Inc.; CBS Inc.; Green Epstein Productions, Inc.; Columbia Pictures Television, Inc.; Matthew O'Connor; Tommy L. Wallace; Jim Green; Alan Epstein; and James Henderson, Defendants-Appellees. No. 94-15094. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Dec. 13, 1994. Decided June 7, 1995. Neville L. Johnson, Los Angeles, CA, for plaintiff-appellant. Paul Alston, Rhonda A. Nishimura, Honolulu, HI, for defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Hawai'i. Before: TANG, SCHROEDER and REINHARDT, Circuit Judges. REINHARDT, Circuit Judge: BACKGROUND 1 This case arises from the notorious Palmyra trials and the publicity surrounding them. Palmyra is an uninhabited island located in the Pacific Ocean. During the summer of 1974, Stephanie Stearns and Buck Walker sailed to the island in an old sailboat. Once there, the couple discovered that the condition of their boat and the lack of adequate supplies prevented their return. Shortly after their arrival, Muff and Mac…