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Show cameras in the court room is the same as denying pads and liens to newspaper Tbe.ie organizations, joined by other advocates of open government, urged that electronic coverage would give the public a better understanding of the judicial system. Times Iy Phillip I Ia;i Los Angeles Times Writer WASHINGTON The television camera focuses on the anguished face of the defendant as he rises in court to hear sentencing. "I wasn't given a fair trial I had nothing to do with the killing, he pleads. This is my life you are talking alxiut, judge. Not just 10 or 15 years in the joint! THE JUDGE, unmoved, pronounces the supreme penalty, ordering that the defendant be sent to the electric chair to receive electrical currents in such intensity and frequency until you are rendered dead. This is televised courtroom drama but its not a Ierry Mason rerun. Its television news coverage of an actual sentencing in a real case one of several criminal proceedings that television viewers in Florida have seen in recent months. With little fanfare, a revolution has been occurring in courtrooms throughout the United States After decades of resistance, the nation's judges slowly are beginning to allow cameras, microphones and tape recorders to Ik used to cover trials and appellate court proceedings. As a result, millions of Americans, some with only the slightest acquaintance with the workings of the judicial system soon may be seeing the courts in operation as they never have before. . FIFTEEN YEARS only two states ago, Colorado and Texas permitted live television cameras in courtrooms. Now, by recent count, 12 states permit TV or radio broadcast of trials and-o- r appeals court proceedings. In some of those states, the televising of trials can take place only with the consent of the defendant or other parties in the case. Another five states authorize exceptions to rules prohibiting such broadcasts but such coverage as yet has not occurred. And in still other states new efforts are being made to strike down longstanding rules forbidding cameras in the courts. "Whats happening has been like an avalanche, Superior Judge Donald R. Fretz of Merced, Calif., chairman of the American Bar Assn.s Criminal Justice and the Media Committee, told an interviewer. Newsmen have long had access to the courtroom the freedom to print and tell what they observe Now . . . were getting television cameras, movie cameras, still cameras, microphones, sound recording. BLIT LIKE a good many judges and lawyers, Fretz believes that the electronic revolution in the courtroom may be proceeding too hastily. Tts coming, I think, but I tx'lieve we need to take sufficient steps to ensure were building on a firm foundation," he said. For years, the barriers against electronics in the courtroom had been based on the belief that lights, microphones, cameras and other equipment would Ik disruptive and that their presence distract judges, would lawyers, jurors and witnesses. Cameras would make some people nervous, it was reasoned, while still others would not be able to resist the chance to "perform before a newly expanded audience News organizations broadcasting groups in particular are protesting the bans, saying that prohibiting - changed, they say. Technical advances have made television in the courtroom far less intrusive than it once would have been. And todays jurors, witnesses, defendants and other trial participants are much more accustomed to television than previous generations These contentions drew significant support during the ABAs recent meeting in New Orleans. A special ABA committee on fair trial and free press concluded that television, radio and photographic coverage of judicial proceedings, in itself, was not inconsistent with the right to fair trial. Subject to local court rules, such coverage should be permitted if the court in the exercise of sound discretion concludes that it can be carried out unobtrusively and without affecting the conduct of the trial, the committee report concluded. The committee chairman, Federal Salt ht 1 X 18 Dial A.D.S (237-200- Court 2.0.0.0 0) on your phone to shixit and kill an 83 d year-ol- Miami Beach woman SEVERAL MILLION people including viewers of network-broadcas- t excerpts saw the from the trial courtroom proceedings in the Zamora case. The trial was listed in TV Guide and local newspapers as a regularly scheduled program. Similarly, troom there has been some unhappiness expressed with the results In one case, a defendant in a criminal insurance fraud trial that was televised, is challenging Ills conviction on the ground that news coverage interfered with his right to a fair trial. In another case. Eastern A Hi lies has asked for rever- - further was the star of "M Squad? Q. Who in the cour- t ' ; : cov- - 't j j Hermann and other judges expressed concern about the prospect of photographing a rape victim who must take the witness stand to give testimony against her at- a humiliating task tacker some rape victims refuse even when they will be seen and heard only by people in the courtroom. ,i ,, i j CHIEF JUSTICE Edward Pringle of Colorado, looking back on his states 20 years of experience with cameras in the courtroom, reminded his fellow judges that as a i u I i matter of policy, broadcasters dont put rape victims on TV just as newspa- ings. AND, IN THE states per- mitting cameras f In a recent meeting of state chief justices, Chief Justice Daniel Hermann of Delaware raised a tough question: "How do we pro- tect the victims of rape from TV?" he asked. in coverage Alabama in the trial of Raymond Chambliss for the killing of four children in the 1952 bombing of a Birmingham church. Cameras were not permitted in the courtroom, but the judge in the case did allow news agencies to make recordings from the courts audio system. A number of other states are taking a more cautious course. In California, for example, the state Supreme Court refused last January to hear a challenge biought to court by broadcasters rules forbidding photos, recordings and broadcasts of trial and appellate proceed- television , A erage. electronic was permitted sal of a $1 (i million judgment against the company re- ndered bv a Florida state jury. The airline contended that the jurors were so impressed with their own appearance on television that they were "improperly motivated to return a sufficiently spec- tacular and newsworthy ver- diet in the hope and expectation that they would receive pers and other print media rarely publish the names of rape victims. - . one-yea- Want Ads are for the BOAT market! - Appeals Judge Alfred T. Goodwin of Portland, Ore., himself once a newspaper reporter, remarked: Openness is the presumptive theory of our government. The public business ought to be done in public. . and today there is a good deal of evidence that trials can be covered electronically without noticeable impact on the defendant. The recommendations will be considered by the ABA at its meeting next August. STATE MEANWHILE, courts continue to lower barriers to cameras, microphones and recorders in the courtrooms. Florida is nearing the end r of a experiment with courtroom broadcasting and a pilot program that seems to have drawn tentative approval in most legal and journalistic circles. Floridas chief justice, Ben F. Overton, cuiuludes: "Florida has an excellent system. I personally am not afraid for the public to see how our judicial system works." Viewers in Florida have TV Lake have been able to see not only the sentencing to death of convicted murderer Ron Straight of Jacksonville but also the celebrated trial of old Roiiny Zamora, whose lawyer, ironically, claimed that his client's fascination with violent drama on television influenced hun it T t t f T I f A Iv Lai rv Kart Chicago Tribune Writer The woman enters at stage left, sits down beside Johnny Carson, and reveals her new method of birth control: She has lxen spayed. "I took the dog to the v et talk about a lucky coinciand they were dence having dollar day. Why not? Fifty bucks For one, 51 for two. I let Sparky go first. WHILE JOKES like that have made Joan Rivers a success, its no surprise to her that at least one group of people finds liel comedy offensive. To this day, she says, I bomb in the Catskill Mountain resorts. Everything that I mock, the rich take so seriously. They dont see the humor in big rings, fur coats, and maids. Theyre too close to those things ; they want them so much. And we all do. But you have to laugh at the fact that you want them. The comedienne, who is on a two week engagement in Chicago, has another set of women enemies, too younger than she who are turned off by the that tone of nins through her comedy To them, Joan Rivers is a female Stepin Fetchit a woman with a said one insulted young feminist. "Why, it's her mind that ought to tie spayed. Menton that attitude to "Equate dog? age, the results arent appar- ent. She still writes 90 percent of her material and has just directed and is coauthor a film of "Rabbit Test, alxiut the world's first pregnant man. HER MAJOR IN college was American literature (My first nightclub act had references, 'Moby Dick 'Sister Carrie references audiences didnt want to hear that stuff, but Rivers real passion was the theater. Discovering that Broadway had no great need for adenoidal Ophelias, Rivers tried stand-ucomedy in Greenwich Village clubs. An encounter with Lenny Fruce helped give her confidence. I was bombing in the Village," she recalls, and a date took me to see Lenny. Id heard of him as a dirty comic, but when I saw him I thought, Im doing what hes doing. Maybe not the same areas, but doing things the same way pushing further and further. Without Lenny there would not be George Carlin, any of us Richard Pryor, Woody : : I I g p Joan Rivers, her career soared with first appearance on The Tonight Shoiv. Rivers, and she doesn't budge an inch Thats their problem. And you want to know something? I dont how is care any more that? Im having a good time and getting rid of all my frustrations through Resides, I talk laughter about things that women have never dared to talk about before. The gynecologist. That when your kid is txim, its ugly at first If Rivers, who was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Ramard College in 195-1-, has gotten dumlKT with Allen, Bill Cosby. The breakthrough finally came with her first appear- ance Show, 16 without tion. on The a date Tonight Feb. 15, that Rivers recalls a moments hesita r . |