Cameras in the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice

Do cameras influence courtroom proceedings? What effect, if any, do they have on trail participants? What implications do televised trials have on due process? Why have the courts, including the Supreme Court, traditionally excluded cameras? What, in short, is the future of the camera in the courtroom? Through interviews with numerous legal scholars, judges, attorneys, defendants, jurors, witnesses, and journalists, these questions and many others are thoroughly examined. The impact of the cameras in several recent high-profile trials is analyzed, as are a number of recent cases in which cameras were excluded. A look at Court TV provides an instructive overview of the good and bad of television coverage.