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Thursday, May 11, 2006

Ind. Courts - More on the cameras-in-trial-courtrooms pilot project

Some reactions to Tuesday's announcement that the Supreme Court will run an 18-month pilot project allwoing caeras in ten trial courts around the state.

From the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel:

A year and a half ago, Allen Superior Court Judge Nancy Boyer agreed to participate in a pilot program that would test the use of media cameras and audio recording devices inside Indiana’s courtrooms. Currently, those devices are prohibited.

She didn’t hear another word about it until Monday, when an Indiana Supreme Court official told Boyer the program was a go. She is one of nine judges participating, and the only one in Allen County. The change takes effect July 1 and runs through Dec. 31, 2007. * * *

“I thought it had just died on the vine,” Boyer said.

Boyer, an Allen Superior Court judge for 15 years who handles only civil cases, said she was happy to agree to the request but is not without reservations.

“I have some misgivings about it, or questions, I should say,” Boyer said. “Will this have an effect on the proceedings? Will it have an effect on the lawyers, or the jurors or the witnesses? Will they act differently if they know they’re on television?

“Jurors are told that they can only decide on what they see and hear. If some outside influence is changing that, that’s not appropriate.”

The nine judges represent a cross-section of the law. Judge Patricia J. Gifford of Marion Superior Court, for example, only hears criminal cases. At the end of the program, the IBA and HSPA will gather feedback from judges, attorneys, jurors, and members of the media on how it worked. They will then present their findings to the Indiana Supreme Court, which will review whether the changes should become permanent for everybody.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:
The idea of having cameras in her courtroom concerns Allen Superior Judge Nancy E. Boyer a little bit, but she is willing to try it out. * * *

Although she handles only civil cases, Boyer said other courtrooms tapped for the project handle either all criminal or a mix of civil and criminal cases.

“I think they wanted to get a cross section of cases,” she said.

Perception may lead one to believe that civil courtrooms do not have the drama present so often in criminal cases, but Boyer said there have been a few recent cases that would have been interesting for TV cameras.

She cited a wrongful termination lawsuit against trash hauler National Serv-All, which was settled in 2003, and a product liability complaint against Yamaha as interesting local civil cases.

From the Terre Haute Tribune-Star, a report by Stephanie Salter:
Long an advocate for placing cameras and tape recorders in courtrooms, Vigo Superior Court Judge Michael Eldred was a bit surprised to see local judges excluded from a statewide experiment on installing such devices.

The exclusion was unintentional, said architects of the experimental program, and might still be corrected.

“We hadn’t been advised of any proponents [of cameras]. We did not mean to exclude anybody,” said Dan Byron, an Indianapolis attorney who represents the Indiana Broadcasters Association.

“Nothing is written in stone. It may not be too late,” Byron said.

The broadcasters and the Hoosier State Press Association worked hard to convince Indiana’s state Supreme Court justices to consider modifying current policy to allow still and video cameras and tape recorders in a few of Indiana’s hundreds of courtrooms.

In their planning, the media associations included a list of eight Indiana judges who they believe would be comfortable with recording devices and capable of handling the public scrutiny the equipment brings.

Tuesday, Indiana Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard signed an order to begin an 18-month experiment that would permit electronic and print media outlets to set up at their own expense cameras and recorders in the eight courts.

The next day, Eldred said, he received calls from Wabash Valley broadcasters asking why he had not agreed to be part of the test.

“No judges in Vigo County refused. We were never asked,” Eldred said Wednesday. “The first I knew that the justices had voted was when I read about it in the paper this morning.”

More than a decade ago, Eldred said, the Supreme Court voted exactly opposite of its recent 3-2 decision for cameras.

“Then it was 3 to 2 against, and the issue went away,” he said.

Judge of Superior Court No. 1, Eldred has been on the bench for 25 years. He said photos, video and voice recordings of entire trials help the public gain “a greater appreciation of the gray areas and the ambiguities of the court system.”

Too often, the judge said, people who have not sat in during daily proceedings hear about a verdict or plea agreement and base their opinion of the outcome on fragmentary information. A video or audio record provides dimension and detail a written transcript or news summary cannot.

Dave Remondini, counsel to Chief Justice Shepard, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he thought the media associations would have included Eldred on their list of judges if they had known about his advocacy of courtroom cameras. While he did not anticipate an expansion of the experimental program, Remondini said, the door was not closed.

Here are links to earlier ILB entries on the announcement: 5/9/06(1), 5/9/06(2), 5/10/06.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 11, 2006 10:39 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts