The interminable hullabaloo and mindlessly boring commentary on the Zimmerman trial has completely overlooked the real culprit in this cable news fiasco. The culprit is the jackass judge that allowed TV cameras to turn the trial into a showboating circus. The founders of our judicial system wisely provided for trials to be public. This was to prevent the kind of star chamber proceedings which had afflicted European justice. The founders never intended for court room proceedings to have a worldwide audience motivating lawyers yearning for fifteen months of fame. We remember with fondness the no-nonsense federal judge who refused to turn his courtroom into a circus for the trial of Timothy McVeigh who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City. The trial lasted a few days, the jury convicted McVeigh, and recommended the death penalty. McVeigh was executed in due course and neither the judge nor the lawyers involved in the trial became celebrities or public figures, nor did the jurors. And none of them ever gave TV interviews or wrote a book. Certainly, the press should have liberal access to courtrooms, especially when there is widespread public interest in the proceedings. TV cameras should never be allowed because of their profoundly disruptive influence on a 'tried and true' judicial system, which otherwise is dependable and elegant. Shame on judges who can't resist the blinking red light.
Your friend,
Donnie Carson
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