WASHINGTON, DC – The House Judiciary Committee today held a hearing to examine bipartisan legislation authored by Congressman Bill Delahunt and Rep. Steve Chabot of Ohio that would remove the legal obstacles to televised coverage of federal courtroom proceedings.

“Cameras in the courtroom offer an alternative – an unedited, unfiltered, unvarnished glimpse of the judicial process as it really is,” Delahunt said. “The goal of this legislation is to enhance our confidence in the American justice system.”

The “Sunshine in the Courtroom Act” (H.R. 2128) would give judges discretion to permit television broadcasts of court proceedings. This legislation aims to improve the public’s right to know, while preserving the privacy of trial participants and the integrity and decorum of court proceedings. By lifting the legal restrictions, viewers would now be allowed to interpret these proceedings for themselves and make their own judgments regarding the fairness of the judge, the competence of counsel, the credibility of witnesses and the quality of presented evidence.

The measure would provide access to federal courts that parallels existing open courtroom laws in all 50 states that allow for audio-visual coverage of state court proceedings.  It also provides a specific provision restricting the televising of jurors.

During his 21-year tenure as Norfolk Country District Attorney, Delahunt advocated introduction of cameras in Massachusetts courtrooms, prosecuting the first case to go to trail under a 1980s pilot project. That project ultimately led to expanded trial coverage.

Delahunt stressed that there are some cases in which witnesses and others have an overriding need for anonymity. In such cases, this legislation retains judicial discretion to exclude cameras at any time and for any reason and provides for disguising voices and images at the request of any party. As a prosecutor, Delahunt occasionally found it necessary to employ such exceptions.

In 1996, for example, Delahunt prosecuted the highly publicized case involving John Salvi’s murder of two women at a family planning clinic in Brookline. To protect the victims’ families, as well as clinic patients and employees, Delahunt filed motions asking the court to exercise its discretion to exclude cameras from covering the trial. Based on the circumstances of that case, Delahunt’s motion was granted.

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