‘IT’S time for your close-up, your honor” could become the new catchphrase in New York courts next year.
State Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Queens) has drafted a bill to get cameras back into New York State courts.
Local TV news stations and Court TV have been clamoring to get their cameras back in since they were tossed out two years ago.
If the new legislation was to pass, viewers would be able to watch prominent cases like the upcoming trials of the four New York City policemen accused of killing African immigrant Amadou Diallo in cold blood.
“It’s one kind of case where it would be beneficial if cameras revealed for everyone the evidence of police misconduct or the lack of police misconduct,” said Douglas Jacobs, Court TV’s general counsel.
Another lens-grabbing case would be the trial of Sante Kimes and her son, Kenneth, who are suspected of swindling and murdering missing heiress Irene Silverman.
For eight years, between 1987 and 1997, New York State allowed cameras in courtrooms sporadically, but two years ago the state legislature allowed the authorization to lapse and no cameras have been allowed in since.
In the era of O.J. Simpson and Court TV, some politicians feel that the 47-year-old law that bans cameras from New York courts is archaic, while others think it keeps local trials from turning into media circuses.
“I think its better for people to see first-hand what’s happening in a case, as opposed to hearing a reporter’s interpretation or an attorney’s spin from the courthouse steps,” Weprin said.
Only five states, including New York, have banned cameras from the courts. “The fact that forward-thinking New York is among them is embarrassing,” Weprin said.
Opponents of the bill say that having cameras in the courts takes away a defendant’s rights to a fair trial because judges and attorneys pay more attention to their appearance on the evening news, while some witnesses may be intimidated by the prospect of appearing on TV.
Case-in-point – the bill’s detractors say – is the O.J. Simpson trial, which turned into a daily media circus where each witness was viewed as a guest star.
“That’s ridiculous,” Weprin said, pointing out the infamous slow-speed car chase that interrupted the NBA Championship. “The reason that it was a circus was because O.J. Simpson was accused of murdering two people. It became a zoo long before we were even near any courtroom.
“If anything, you’re more likely to have a fair trial,” Weprin said. “If you have a camera there and people have the ability to watch and exercise their constitutional right to have an open trial, a judge might act a little more judicial and an attorney may be a bit more prepared and there will be less dealings going on that they don’t want the public to see.”
The case for courtroom cameras was further fueled last spring when judges ruled against a series of lawsuits brought by three TV stations, including Fox News in Albany.