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Saturday, August 26, 2006
Ind. Courts - Star editorial on cameras in courtrooms
"Cameras keep eye on court system" is the title to the editorial today in the Indianapolis Star, followed by "Our position: Indiana court proceedings should be >permanently open to cameras." The piece provides some interesting context to the current experiment:
It shouldn't be a surprise that participants in an Indiana Supreme Court experiment allowing cameras in courtrooms report no disruptions in proceedings, no showboating lawyers, no intimidated witnesses.Former Marion County Judge John Wilson might have predicted that. Decades ago, Wilson mounted a fixed camera in his courtroom allowing TV stations to broadcast some of the most widely publicized trials of the era. Until the state Supreme Court made him stop.
In 1990, Larry McKinney, now chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, participated in an experiment allowing cameras in federal courts.
"Our report back to the Judicial Conference was that we had tried it, we worked through some of the problems, and we did not see any difficulty with the conduct of the lawyers, with witness behavior or that it made jurors more or less nervous," McKinney said. "It was a relatively positive experience for us."
In 1994, however, the Judicial Conference rejected a recommendation to authorize cameras in federal courts.
But dozens of states permit cameras at trials and have done so for decades without incident.
The biggest problem with Indiana's 18-month pilot project is that lawyers for both sides have to consent to allow cameras. To date, only 10 to 15 percent of litigants have agreed to have cameras present. That could sway Supreme Court justices, who are narrowly divided on the issue, against permanently allowing cameras in all Indiana courtrooms.
Perhaps the most sensible approach on the issue was taken years ago by Hendricks Circuit Judge J.V. Boles, who decided to use modern technology to provide video transcripts of court proceedings, instead of relying on written transcripts that add expense to trials and fail to capture everything occurring in the courtroom.
If cable channels, local TV stations or newspapers wanted to tap the official recording, they easily could do so.
"The risk here isn't turning courtrooms into a circus or unduly invading someone's privacy," said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., in support of legislation to allow cameras in federal courtrooms. "The risk is the danger we pose to our society and our democracy when we close off our institutions to the people they are supposed to serve."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 26, 2006 09:38 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts