Steve Palmer [00:00:00]:
Steve Palmer here. Another episode of lawyer talk q and a. And today, I'm gonna take a question that I received. And, basically, the question is this. Am I allowed to show up and watch trials or watch my this I'm I'm I'm changing the names to protect the answer. I'm not gonna mention names. But this this questioner wants to go to trial and watched a loved one's criminal case, jury trial. And this is, this is part and parcel with questions I get a lot from clients, from family, from everybody, who has an and maybe even people just have a public interest.
Steve Palmer [00:00:35]:
Can you go to court and watch? And I'm gonna I'm gonna focus on criminal trials because that's what I do, and I think there's you'll you'll you'll catch on why because there's some constitutional backing to it. But the answer, in short, is yes. And what I often tell people is, look, you're paying for it, and they look at me sort of strange. I'm like, listen. You pay the judge's salary with your tax dollars and maybe not if you live in a different community or a different county or different state, but you get it. Your tax dollars up or pay you the government uses your tax dollars to maintain the courthouse, to pay for the security, to do all these things. So, yes, you can go to court. We pay for it.
Steve Palmer [00:01:10]:
In fact, anybody who remembers like, I love old movies. You probably caught on if you pay attention to my series. Like, I go back and think in your head like old black and white movies and to the one that comes to mind is To Kill a Mockingbird. And, you know, there's if you've read the book, it talks about the kids sneaking into I think that's To Kill a Mockingbird. It talks about kids sneaking in to watch the the trial, and it's like standing room only. They got the balconies above and these old courthouses in the town square. I mean, it used to be the drama before we had TV and radio and etcetera. That was the drama.
Steve Palmer [00:01:42]:
That was, like, going to a play. And so it was a very open and public forum, and people would be, shoulder to shoulder pushing to get in on some of these big, high publicity cases. But it's not without constitutional grounding. I'm gonna read to you this I don't know. This little, some people call it a technicality, but we'll read it anyway. The sixth amendment, it says, in all criminal prosecutions, accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. That's loaded folks with rights, but I'm gonna stop at the first sentence. Shall have the shall enjoy the right to speedy and public trial.
Steve Palmer [00:02:35]:
What this means is the court can't simply, on its own, for no good reason, shut down the the close the doors of the courthouse and not let people in. And in fact, there this sometimes becomes the basis for appeals. If a if a client or a defendant, is stuck in court and the the judge closes the door for no good reason and doesn't let anybody in, it can be a violation of this right. And there's a whole body of law in it I'm not gonna go into, but, it it it is important, and and I think it's probably interesting. I why it's important, I think, is worthy of some consideration. Secrets what happens in the dark tends to fester in a really negative way. In other words, we like our justice on Front Street. And if our justice is on on Front Street, then everybody can see it.
Steve Palmer [00:03:19]:
Everybody can hear it, and it it helps us ensure by public, I guess, by public observation, it exposes, the process. And if it's not fair, then there's gonna be this public, in in theory, some public outcry about it. And a lot of these amendments are they they were, as my buddy, Houston, Electrician said, the the the electrical code is written in blood and meaning meaning, the things that you have to do in the electric code are because somebody before had been hurt by not doing it. And, you know, you can imagine a scenario where the old King George would say, look, you can have a trial, but it's gonna be this kangaroo court where we're gonna lock everybody out and nobody gets to see it. But when you come out, you're gonna be guilty in handcuffs and be hung in the public square. And everybody's like, well, how's that happen? It doesn't feel like it's fair. So a public trial is a very important thing. It doesn't mean it's without limits, though.
Steve Palmer [00:04:07]:
You know, if there's sometimes judges will close courtrooms, to protect the identity of certain witnesses. Just think like mafia hits, or if you've got, something else going on where there's threats, the the courtroom sometimes can be closed temporarily. I can't think of a scenario, though, where I've ever not in my in my career where a judge has ever completely closed a courtroom throughout the entire trial. The next question is, like, can what about media? How do media get into a courtroom? So let me well, I'll conclude the first point first, though. Yes. You can go to court. You can watch your loved one's trial. You can, you can show up and wait in the peanut gallery, and you can, watch everything that happens.
Steve Palmer [00:04:49]:
And there used to be even if you're not interested in it, you can be interested in it. We used to have when I started practicing in Franklin County, we called them court watchers, a group of great people, really sharp people who I think they were retired, and they just enjoyed watching trials. And they used to they used to see them in the elevators every day, and they'd say, you in trial? Like, next week, and they say, where? And we tell them they would always show up and watch. They just liked it and and for good reason. Right? They they were old school, and it was it was interesting entertainment for them. And it's a lot more interesting and perhaps a lot more educational than YouTube. But if you're watching Anyway, the there are some exceptions or let's talk about the not the exceptions first, but let's talk about the media. In federal court, often, they don't let cameras in, and that's why you see the old courtroom sketch artists.
Steve Palmer [00:05:37]:
So there'll be a sketch artist in the back, you know, drawing pictures of the witness and then doing, like, these pretty cool things. I I've had a few made of me over the years, and, unfortunately, I've never I tried to order one one time, and it it I we I lost communication with the artist. I was never able to to get it, but, they have sketch artists. Most of the time, media can come into a trial in state court, at least here in Ohio and and most other local state courts I've been in, with cameras, etcetera. The judges often will have some stipulations about that and some rules that they have to follow. Certainly, they can't be disruptive. But in a hearing I had a couple weeks ago, wasn't quite a trial, but there was a media guy there. And it wasn't even, what I'll call legacy media or or big media.
Steve Palmer [00:06:22]:
You know, it wasn't a TV station. It was a YouTube guy who had his own channel and just goes around and documents interesting hearings. And he filed a motion, a request formally, asking the judge for permission for an order allowing him to set up a camera and monitor the hearing. And the judge granted it, and I think the judge had to grant it by law. There are some stipulations that go with it, though, like the the judge probably would not allow any video of, say, a child witness. Or if there's a protected witness, they may shut off the cameras for that. Sometimes I've had a few hearings and trials in my career where every single media outlet, even those out of state national, want to be there with cameras. And the court said, look, I'm gonna allow three of you, meaning media outlets to have cameras, and the rest you figure out how to share it because we're not gonna have 15 cameras in my courtroom.
Steve Palmer [00:07:11]:
This is not room. It's unwieldy. And it gets simulcast and everybody has to share the feed. OJ trial was probably that way. So, yes, you again, the the big picture is, yes, you have a right to be there and so does everybody else including the media, and there's a good reason for it. A lot of times, we don't like it because, you know, there's pressure, etcetera. But, you know, the sunshine tends to air out all the bad stuff. And the more public and the more, exposure the system has, I think you're gonna expose the the worst parts of the system and hopefully correct them.
Steve Palmer [00:07:46]:
You know, you can just the sunshine disinfects and I think that's the purpose behind it. So hope that answers the question of the individual who sent the question, but also everybody else's question. And and and, by the way, it's intimidating. You go to court and you gotta walk through metal detectors. You don't know where you're going and you're asking people. Plow through it. It's a blast, man. Go go check out what's going on in a courtroom even if it's just like a we call them disposition days or dispo days or a sentencing day.
Steve Palmer [00:08:13]:
Go check it out and just watch. Watch how the system that you're paying for works, because, you know, you you might be surprised at how inefficient it is at times. You might be surprised at how efficient it is at times, but I guarantee you'll learn something about what's going on underneath. And I all too often, I have clients say, look. I never knew what it was like to be accused of something, until my son had to go through this, and it just doesn't seem fair at all. So some people are surprised in a way that maybe they have a little more empathy and sympathy for those who get accused of crimes. Others may be the opposite. But look, surprise yourself in any way you can.
Steve Palmer [00:08:51]:
Go to court. Check it out. Watch it. And, of course, keep listening to Lawyer Talk Podcast where we are off the record on the air until now.