Professor Nancy Marder was featured yesterday in the New York Times‘ “Room for Debate” forum, where five experts discussed the pros and cons of televised trials (“You, the Jury“). The debaters covered questions like, “Does televising trials let people better understand the criminal justice system, or does that attention turn trials into circuses?” and “[W]as the coverage of the [Zimmerman] trial an important service or just a ploy for ratings?”
Prof. Marder’s response, titled “A Viewer’s Role Is Nothing Like a Juror’s,” states that “televised criminal trials do more harm than good” and focuses on the fact that “the television viewer does not watch the entire trial with full attention, and does not view it with the protections provided to jurors.” Click here to continue reading.
Additionally, take a look at Prof. Marder’s scholarly article The Conundrum of Cameras in the Courtroom (44 Arizona State Law Journal 1489 (2013)) for more on this topic.
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