Broadcasters and newspapers were back again Tuesday asking lawmakers to allow them to photograph and tape courtroom sentencings.
But judges, lawyers and prosecutors also were back to oppose allowing cameras in criminal courts, saying it would hurt crime victims and could hurt judges who were up for re-election if their quotes were taken out of context.
A bill to allow court cameras almost made it out of the House Judiciary Committee last year, failing to pass by one vote. “I hope we?ve grown wiser by one,” said Del. Michael Smigiel, the Cecil County Republican who has sponsored the legislation again.
“This bill has been stripped down to the bare minimum,” Smigiel told his colleagues on the committee. Over the last two decades, broadcast and print media have repeatedly tried to gain full access to Maryland courts, only to be turned down by legislators.
Smigiel said cameras in court would give the public a better idea of the judicial process.
“I don?t believe the judge would be less able in taking care of their courtrooms,” Smigiel said.
Michelle Butt, news director of WBAL TV, said she had seen how courtroom cameras worked in several other states. “Local media worked very closely” with court personnel to make it work, Butt said. “The portions of those most heinous cases will not be broadcast,” Butt said. The cameras would provide a true picture of what goes on in courtrooms, she added.
Judge Nathan Braverman, a District Court jurist in Baltimore City, testified for the Maryland Judicial Conference that “there is absolutely nothing to be gained by this bill.”
The legislation “ignores the rights and sensibilities of crime victims,” who would have no say in the taping, said Braverman, who chairs the criminal procedures committee for the state judges.
The judge maintained that quotes would be taken out of context, and judges would be discouraged from asking difficult questions that might prove unpopular ? especially if they were up for election. TV stations “tend to focus on what entertains, what titillates,” Braverman said.
There are now 35 states that routinely allow cameras in courtrooms, down from more than 40 states years ago. “We?re moving in the right direction,” Anne Arundel State?s Attorney Frank Weathersbee said. “All the people who work around the courts are opposed to this.”
