LJWorld.com / '48 Hours' sets up for Murray trial

Archive for Wednesday, February 16, 2005

CBS: ‘Minimum intrusion’ pledged for courtroom

February 16, 2005

They dangled a remote-controlled camera from the ceiling. They stuck microphones on the jury box and judge's bench. They popped out ceiling tiles to string television cord.

A crew from the CBS News program "48 Hours" took over a Douglas County courtroom Tuesday to prepare to film the upcoming murder trial of Kansas State University professor Thomas E. Murray. Despite the TV-studio feel inside the courtroom Tuesday, crew members said they would fade into the background when testimony started Thursday.

"We try to get the maximum coverage with the minimum intrusion," correspondent Richard Schlesinger said as he sat in the jury box with crew members scattered around the room. "The most important thing here is there is a free and fair trial that has to be carried out. ... A lot of people think we have to come in with lights blazing and cranes and directors screaming ‘action!'"

Schlesinger is in town from New York this week with producers Ian Paisley and Paul Ryan and a crew of five camera and audio technicians. Their report on the case will run at a date yet to be determined after the trial, which is expected to last four to six weeks.

"We're going to talk to everybody who will talk to us," Schlesinger said. "We'll just try like hell to tell everybody's story."

Perhaps the most noticeable change to the courtroom Tuesday was a remote-controlled camera hanging from the ceiling behind the witness stand, which will face the audience.

The crew also removed ceiling tiles to string TV cable down a hallway to a room where other stations will have access to the footage.

The setup is subject to final approval by District Court Judge Robert Fairchild, who is presiding over the trial.

"He'll have a walk-through to make sure he's satisfied with it," said Ron Keefover, the education and information officer with the state office of judicial administration, who has been appointed the court's media liaison for the trial.

CBS camera and sound crews set up for Thomas E. Murray's murder trial at the Judicial & Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St. From left, cameramen Adam Zletz and Tom Vlodek set up remotes and the main camera Tuesday in the courtroom.

Cameras were first allowed in Kansas courtrooms in 1981, Keefover said. He said he supported televising trials in part because it caused broadcast media to pay closer attention to the justice system.

But some oppose the idea of recording trials on grounds that attorneys might play to the cameras and jurors might be more likely to see coverage, he said.

Defense attorney Bob Eye said he doubted the TV presence would affect the course of the trial.

"I think that the people who are involved in this case are very serious-minded," he said. "I think that we'll resist, hopefully, the impulse to do something that we would not do but for the media."

Murray, an English professor and linguistics expert, is charged with stabbing and beating his ex-wife, Carmin D. Ross, in November 2003 at her home northwest of Lawrence.

Jury selection in the trial neared an end Tuesday. After a morning session, a total of 46 jurors had been ordered to come to court this morning, according to the District Court Clerk's Office.

Schlesinger

That's when attorneys for the defense and prosecution will each strike an equal number of jurors until there are 12 jurors and three alternates.

Initially, court officials said there would be 45 jurors arriving today. But one was still completing a survey and had not officially been dismissed as of Tuesday.

Thirty-six jurors were chosen Monday, but three were later excused. Thirteen were chosen Tuesday morning.