Through his recently announced legislative initiative, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman seeks to allow cameras into open court proceedings with a few caveats, recording would need the judge's permission and there would be provisions for concealing faces of jurors and of subpoenaed witnesses. I believe such restrictions are wrong and run contrary to the reason Judge Lippman started the initiative, which was to allow the public outside of open court proceedings to see what the public inside the courtroom sees.
Moreover, my concern as an appellate attorney is that Judge Lippman's initiative does not voice another major reason why Civil Rights Law 52, which makes it a crime of misdemeanor to videotape court proceedings, must be repealed unconditionally, and why videotaping of open court proceedings should be allowed simply on request of a party litigant, as a matter of due process of law, as of right and without restrictions.
In New York, intermediate appellate courts have a right to review issues of fact, unlike the Court of Appeals. But they do not usually exercise this right, instead proclaiming their policy of deference to the factual determinations of the trial courts, specifically because appellate courts only get the written record and cannot see demeanor of the trial witnesses.
With videotaped proceedings, appellate courts will no longer have that excuse to restrict their review. Unrestricted videotaping of public court proceedings will restore appellate review in New York to where it should have been in the first place.
TATIANA NERONI, ESQ.
Delhi