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Abstract

Should television cameras be allowed in Maine's courtrooms? The answer to this question implicates policies involving the rights of parties, witnesses, the media, and the public. Nearly ten years ago, the Supreme Court ruled conclusively that there is no constitutional impediment to allowing television coverage of trials in state courts. Since then, the majority of states have promulgated rules, with greater or lesser degrees of restriction, allowing television coverage of proceedings in their courts. This trend has not abated; with the adoption of audio-visual coverage rules by the Vermont Supreme Court in 1989, Maine is now the only New England state which does not allow camera coverage of trial proceedings. New Hampshire has allowed cameras into its courts since 1978, Massachusetts since 1983. Maine television news viewers for several years have watched network and cable broadcasts of in-court coverage of trial court proceedings in other states, including the "Big Dan's" rape trial in Massachusetts, the Richard Ramirez "Night Stalker" trial in California, and the Joel Steinberg child murder and William Hurt "common law marriage" trials in New York. In addition, several states have conducted extensive studies evaluating the effects of their allowance of courtroom television coverage on judges, parties, attorneys, witnesses, and jurors. In past statements regarding its refusal to allow news cameras into Maine's trial courts, the Supreme Judicial Court has identified several specific concerns. While these concerns will be addressed in detail in this Comment, it is fair to say that among many judges and lawyers, there is a visceral reaction against the notion of cameras in the courtroom, based upon what Justice Douglas called, "a deep instinctive impulse to make the court room sacrosanct—to keep it a place of dignity where the quest for truth goes on quietly and without fanfare and where utmost precautions are taken to keep all extraneous influences from making themselves felt.” But is the public better served by this prohibition on television coverage of courtroom proceedings? Maine's television stations cover major civil and criminal trials—their reporters attend proceedings, and in criminal trials their reports are accompanied by video of defendants photographed in shackles entering and leaving the courthouse. In prominent trials newspaper, radio, and television reporters may fill the benches, scratching at notebooks, while sketch artists employed by television stations furiously choose and apply colored crayons to large sketchpads in plain view of the jury and witnesses. Defendants, witnesses, jurors, attorneys, and judges may all be photographed and filmed entering and leaving the courthouse.

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