Media in the jury deliberation room

Media in the jury deliberation room

Running Head:   Televising the Deliberation Room





Televising the Deliberation Room


 
Media coverage has changed the way in which we live in this world.   Society has become one that is obsessed with instant gratification.   For better or worse, Twitter and Facebook have forever changed how Americans get their news.   While most people are aware that media coverage of criminal cases has grown exponentially in the past three decades, many are unaware that this explosion of interest is reaching new levels.   Media outlets are trying to open the jury deliberation room; doing so would have effects on the criminal justice system and the general publics’ understanding of it.   Few things have been left untouched by the scope of media interest.   The private deliberation of twelve people deciding the fate of one of their peers was one of those sacred things.   That has recently changed.
For many years the media has played an important part of the criminal justice system.   The trial of Bruno Hauptmann in 1935 had massive media attendance.   Hauptmann was sentenced to death for the kidnap and murder of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of famous pilots Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The press coverage of this famous trial led to the enactment of Canon 35 by the American Bar Association (Fulton, 81).   Canon 35 stated that camera equipment was not allowed inside the courtroom because it compromised the integrity of the judicial system.   In 1953 Canon 35 was amended to stay current with technology and also ban the use of television cameras. According to Fulton (81) in 1978 Canon 35 was “Revised to allow the use of unobtrusive electronic coverage under conditions established by the trial judge” (p.1396).   This revision has led us to our current state of media presence in the courtroom.   No longer would the cameras be left outside, they are now inside the courtrooms across America documenting how the criminal justice system works....