Justices see ‘big picture’ for Illinois courts
Comments (...)Cameras are coming to a courtroom near you.
Not immediately, but soon.
The media first have a few things to work out with the judges – and vice versa.
But before long, this newspaper’s report about an important court proceeding can involve a photograph – even video – of the event, just like we can now with a meeting of the city council or school board.
And that is a good thing.
THE ILLINOIS SUPREME Court, through Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride, announced this week that we will join 36 other states that allow local court proceedings to be filmed and tape recorded.
After 194 years of statehood – and some 75 years into the electronic media age – it’s better late than never.
Like any matter of public access, this move advances the transparency of government, and just in time.
Such a change comes amid intense public skepticism about the actions and motives of deeply partisan political forces that seem to drive the executive, legislative and even judicial branches of government.
The more they open the process, the more government officials have an opportunity to win public trust.
We welcome the announcement by Kilbride and the court.
PEOPLE WHO READ this newspaper might know we have considered cameras in courtrooms to be something of a crusade.
We have editorialized extensively about the issue.
One such editorial caught the attention of Kilbride in 2010 as he was campaigning for retention on the court.
After he contacted us, the Sauk Valley Media editorial board had a telephone conference with him to discuss his ideas and to encourage him to nudge his fellow justices into the era of openness.
In fact, a series of editorials written by Jim Dunn, our Opinion page editor, won a third place award last year for local editorials in competition sponsored by the Illinois Press Association.
We also won first place – for our crusade to reform the way Illinois draws the boundaries of legislative districts.
We’re still working on that one.
REACTION WAS MIXED among officials who will be most affected by cameras in the courtroom.
We were encouraged by the comments of the two local chief judges – Val Gunnarsson in the 15th Judicial Circuit (including Carroll, Lee and Ogle counties) and Jeffrey O’Connor in the 14th Circuit (including Whiteside County).
“I’m all for it, because technology has evolved over the years,” O’Connor told SVM reporter Tara Becker. “You won’t hardly notice [cameras] there.”
As for Whiteside County State’s Attorney Gary Spencer ... well, he could hardly suppress his enthusiasm.
“[The Supreme Court] makes the rules,” Spencer said. “It’s my job to play by them, whatever those rules are.”
Equally grumpy was Lee County State’s Attorney Henry Dixon.
“I just don’t want a judicial system that’s driven by personal publicity or personal concerns about someone’s appearance,” Dixon said.
Just like the justice system: Win some, lose some.
HERE IS HOW THIS change will affect your life: very little.
If anything, people are going to be disappointed when they get a glance inside local courtrooms through the eye of a camera.
For starters, the people who portray judges and lawyers on TV are much better actors than real judges and lawyers.
Some might suggest the people on TV are better looking, too, but we would never agree with such a thing.
Second, the public is going to find out that most of what goes on inside a courtroom is pretty boring.
TV and movies have tight scripts and sharp editing to condense courtroom action and heighten drama between the characters.
Real lawyers, judges and witnesses are not nearly so well rehearsed, which means trials and hearings generally plod along at a snail’s pace.
Ask any judge or lawyer you know – they probably can tell you about the time a juror fell asleep amid the lethargy of legal proceedings.
STILL, PEOPLE FIND something enthralling about the human dramas that unfold – even if slowly – during a trial.
Many young reporters have found it difficult to tear themselves away from testimony involving even low-level crimes.
And we remember how the nation got hooked on the televised O.J. Simpson trial.
But as long as most public exposure to trial courts depends on the news media, day-to-day proceedings will largely be ignored. Most things that go on inside the courtroom are just not very interesting – or entertaining.
Posting a photographer full time in local courts would be like putting him at the most dangerous intersection in town.
You know something newsworthy is going to happen there – but maybe only once every couple of weeks.
So, unless courts decide to broadcast all proceedings themselves, glimpses inside the local court system will be rare.
AND HERE ARE SOME things you might never see in Illinois:
n Photos of jurors and prospective jurors
n Proceedings involving juveniles, divorce, adoption, child custody and even evidence-suppression hearings in criminal cases
n More than four cameras (two for TV, two still photographers)
And a judge may ban images of some trial participants if they ask. They include victims of violent felonies, police informants, and relocated witnesses.
Those, at least, are the preliminary ground rules for this “pilot project” that will involve camera use only by the “established” media.
After everyone sees that cameras promote – rather than inhibit – justice in Illinois courtrooms, the guidelines can evolve.
AS JUSTICE KILBRIDE has acknowledged, cameras have been successfully integrated into courtrooms in other states.
“I know from my experience living in the Quad Cities that cameras in the courtroom have worked quite well on the Iowa side,” he told Statehouse News Service this week. “They have been well accepted by judges and lawyers. I have no reason to believe that won’t be the case in Illinois.”
In fact, Illinois modeled its policy on Iowa’s, which has been in effect for more than 30 years.
At the very least, people should learn something from seeing real trial proceedings.
“It will serve as good civics lesson for people to see what is happening within the courts,” Kilbride said.
That shouldn’t hurt anybody.
Comments
Total Comments 0 View/Add Comments |
There have been no comments made about this story. |
