Looking at the effects of both allowing and barring television coverage of legal proceedings, Cohn (the Thomas Jefferson School of Law) and Dow, a retired CBS News correspondent, examine landmark televised trials, including those of O. J. Simpson and William Kennedy Smith, and analyze the impact of CourtTV and the history of cameras in American courtrooms. Interviews with judges, attorneys, jurors, and legal scholars shed light on the subject. This paperback reprint features a new preface by the authors, on the effect of excluding television cameras from the trial of a September 11th terrorist. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the free press-fair trial debate over news cameras in the courtroom--one that discusses the issue from a historical, legal, and social scientific perspective. It incorporates the key aspects of the debate in one volume, examining witness privacy and protection, defendant reputation, the purported educational benefits of televising trials, the coverage of trials from an entertainment or voyeurisitic perspective, and whether any proposed benefits of televising trials are negated by potential negative costs to the participants involved or the audience in general.
In the last quarter century, televised court proceedings have gone from an outlandish idea to a seemingly inevitable reality. Yet,debate continues to rage over the dangers and benefits to the justice system of cameras in the courtroom. Critics contend television transforms the temple of justice into crass theatre. Supporters maintain that silent cameras portray "the real thing," that without them judicial reality is inevitably filtered through the mind and pens of a finite pool of reporters. Television in a courtroom is clearly a two-edged sword, both invasive and informative. Bringing a trial to the widest possible audience creates pressures and temptations for all participants. While it reduces speculations and fears about what transpired, television sometimes forces the general public, which possesses information the jury may not have, into a conflicting assessment of specific cases and the justice system in general. TV or Not TV argues convincingly that society gains much more than it loses when trials are open to public scrutiny and discussion.
This updated edition of The Illustrated Courtroom came to be because the world of court art has evolved so dramatically since our book's first edition. Trial art is now a fixture both in the 24/7 news cycle and in the fast-moving online world. And numerous epic news stories that broke in the past few years proved hard to ignore. We welcomed the opportunity to include some notable examples. The #MeToo social movement exploded internationally in 2017, signaling massive support for victims of sexual assault. Uber-powerful Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein's precipitous fall was at its heart, following decades of rumors of his sexually predatory behavior. In February 2020, I drew Weinstein being found guilty of rape and criminal sexual acts then sentenced to 23 years in prison. Artist Aggie Kenny's work is also featured in this book. She and I covered multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein's July 2019 arraignment on sex trafficking charges in New York. Epstein was first convicted as a sex offender back in 2008 but unlike in 2008, in 2019, he faced major prison time. However, on August 10, before he could stand trial, he was found dead in his cell. The story and theories on how Epstein died gripped the nation. We court artists have always needed nerves of steel plus an aptitude for speed and precision, but now, with the Internet's meme culture, our work is ever more closely scrutinized. Any perceived failure to produce a good likeness of a famous face triggers a flood of criticism. In 2015, an artist's rendition of New England Patriots' football star Tom Brady at the #Deflategate proceedings-which followed allegations that Brady's team had cheated by using under-inflated balls-was pilloried as unflattering and unrecognizable. The illustration swiftly went viral. Its artist was heavily criticized as parodies and memes erupted, ridiculing her artwork. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the courts has been significant. Courtroom artists faced a whole new challenge, people's faces behind masks, behind barriers or on video. Limited seating in courtrooms due to social distancing. At the Britney Spears conservatorship, hearing some lawyers made their arguments via video, while others were in court wearing masks. Artists drew the R.Kelly sex trafficking trial from a blurry video feed piped into an overflow courtroom. These episodes alone are proof positive that we courtroom artists now inhabit a whole new world
The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.
Perhaps no drama catches the interest of the American public more than a spectacular trial. Even though the reporting of a crime may quickly diminish in news value, the trial lingers while drama builds. Although this has become seemingly more pronounced in recent years with the popularity of televised trials, public interest in criminal trials was just as high in 1735 when John Peter Zenger defended his right to free speech, or in 1893 when Lizzie Borden was tried for the murder of her father and stepmother. This book tells the stories of sixteen significant trials in American history and thei.
