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New Printing of Professor Cohn’s “Cameras in the Courtroom”

April 25, 2011

Cohn Cameras Cover

TJSL Professor Marjorie Cohn has released a new printing of her book Cameras in the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice, co-authored by former CBS News correspondent David Dow.

The highly praised first printing of the book, published in 1998 by McFarland & Company, was cited in a   U.S. Supreme Court opinion, as Professor Cohn explains below.

“Televising trials continues to be a controversial news story as media organizations fight to get into the courtroom and judges fight to retain discretion to keep them out,” said Professor Cohn. “The issue moved to the U.S. Supreme Court when a conservative majority ruled to prevent broadcasting of California’s same-sex marriage (Proposition 8) trial and the liberal dissenters cited an earlier printing of ‘Cameras in the Courtroom.’ This printing has an updated preface and a new introduction that reflect changes since the original publication of this book.”

From the McFarland & Company website:

About the Book

Do cameras influence courtroom proceedings? What effect, if any, do they have on trial 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.