The Communication and Media Studies (CMS) program, in conjunction with the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, hosted a panel last night on "Law and Order: Debate Over Cameras in the Courtroom" in Braker Auditorium.
The panelists included three keynote speakers, including Wendy Murphy, a trial attorney and former prosecutor who works with crime victims, women and children.
Also participating were Wendy Whitman, Vice President of Court TV, and Dan Winslow, former Chief Legal Counsel to Governor Mitt Romney and current partner at Duane Morris LLP. Moderating the event was Julie Dobrow, Director of CMS at Tufts.
The panel addressed the difficult balance between full disclosure of a constitutionally public process and the factors that often prompt the decision to ban cameras from trials, like the effect disclosure may have on the people involved in any given case.
"Trials are public, but nominally public," Winslow said. "Some of the most intense events of a person's life happens in a court of law."
The problem occurs, he said, when "cameras don't simply convey the process...they intrude on the process."
Lawyers, for instance, might use a televised trial as an opportunity to show off. "I've never seen a thoughtful, contemplative lawyer on camera because it's boring and they know it," Winslow said.
With the eye of the public on them, lawyers may take the stance that "it's not about the truth, it's about winning," Murphy said.
The panelists agreed that media hype furthermore can hinder the fair progress of a trial by influencing the jurors.
Nevertheless, disclosure can have marked benefits, the panelists said.
One such case was the trial of the owners of the Rhode Island nightclub where 96 people died in the highly publicized 2003 fire.
This trial was not televised, which the panelists said kept the public from learning about the injustice that had been done.
Defendants were given a plea bargain that gave them punishments too small in relation to the crime, according to victims' family members.
Sometimes programs like Court TV "are the only voice victims have," Murphy said.
Further debate on this subject must take into account the fact that "justice isn't just a label we slap on, it's fairness," Murphy said.
- Katharine Seim
