“. . . the advocates for the cameras just got their cause pushed back 100 years.”
That assessment of the O.J. Simpson trial by Marijane Placek, a Cook County assistant public defender, may very well be true. And that’s a real shame.
A number of people in legal and political circles are pointing to the lone television camera in the courtroom as the cause of the interminable duration and the sensationalism surrounding the Simpson case. As if the absence of the camera would have prompted Lance Ito to be a firmer judge, or compelled the prosecution to prepare a more succinct case, or tamed the theatrical instincts of Johnnie Cochran.
California Gov. Pete Wilson said on Wednesday that cameras should be prohibited from his state’s courtrooms. Perhaps a better solution would be to prohibit courts in California, where big murder cases seem to take on a life of their own. The Hillside Strangler case took 23 months. The Charles Manson case took nine months. Neither one was televised.
The Simpson trial was, and it turned into a daily civics lesson for those who tuned in. It sure wasn’t pretty, but it gave the public an unfiltered view and allowed them to reach their own conclusions. It taught viewers about court procedures and rules of evidence. That much of the public was appalled by the proceedings was no fault of the camera. It was the fault of those who staged this trial.
Now–when the law-enforcement and criminal-justice systems are coming under such scrutiny and criticism as a result of the Simpson, Ruby Ridge, Rodney King and like cases–would be absolutely the worst time to close off the public’s access to the courtroom via television. The public wants to know, and deserves to know, just what is going on.
Instead, the Simpson trial has sparked talk of retrenchment in some of the 47 states that now allow televised court proceedings.
At noon on Wednesday, tens of millions of Americans stopped what they were doing to watch the jury’s verdict. Whatever their motivations, they wanted to see first-hand the outcome of this trial. No one coerced them to watch. No one should have denied them the opportunity.
