Post by Sue on Apr 18, 2020 10:36:44 GMT -5
"Reeve Pleads Against Ban on Cameras at Bruno Trial"
Movie Record Is Too Valuable in Solving Case to Lose It, Author Asserts
By Arthur B. Reeve
Author of the Craig Kennedy Detective Series
FLEMINGTON COURT HOUSE, N.J., Feb 2--It is reported that Supreme Court Justice
Trenchard may ban from the court room all moving picture photographers, cameras and sound equipment.
I hope that this is not true.
If he does so, I think it would be a set-back to jurisprudence.
No trial has demonstrated so acutely the need for justice to employ every modern scientific aid to crime detection, investigation and prosecution as has the Hauptmann case.
Jeopardize Solution
Time and again, the authorities, by failing to avail themselves of many opportunities to detect, preserve or analyze evidence available to them by scientific methods, put
in jeopardy the eventual solution of the Lindbergh kidnaping.
As I have pointed out before, whether Hauptman is convicted or acquitted, a large section of the public will never be satisfied that justice has been done, so many were the blunders in handling this case.
A moving picture sound record of this trial is important for many reasons besides the matter of public interest, of the profits to be made, which is, of course, the elementary motive governing the moving picture people.
Valuable for Retrial
Suppose there is a mistrial, or a dismissal of the indictment, or a new trial ordered on appeal; how important it would then become to have available a sound-movie record.
Witnesses may die or disappear. Memories may change. Evidence and exhibits may be lost, or destroyed or altered.
Here, perpetually preserved, is an indisputable record. You can see it all, and you can hear it all, just as if you had been there.
Especially in relation to the human testimony, as distinct from the scientific testimony, how can the printed record ever give--for an appeal or otherwise--the evaluation of the credibility of the witnesses as a sound-movie record would give it?
Facial Expression Vital
No matter what the letter of the law may be, the elementary justice institute may rest largely upon, the scales of justice may be tipped one way or another by, the character of these witnesses as expressed by facial expressions, by body movements, by the quaver or strength of a tone of voice.
A witness who makes little impression upon the jury may sound all right in the record. A witness who is impressive may sound uncertain in the record.
But the movie-sound record gives you exactly as it happened, all the weight of this human testimony.
Angered by Movies
Justice Trenchard is supposed to be angered because an agreement has been violated; movies were not to have been made while court was in session; actually they have been and are now on exhibit. I can readily understand Justice Trenchard's annoyance.
However, I sincerely hope that he is patient and permits the camera in the court room to continue its silent grinding.
Most of all, I hope that the sound-movies of this trial, disclosing many of the shortcomings I have described in the handling of the whole case, will through its obvious lesson bring a reform in modern criminal procedure.
New York Post
Saturday
February 2, 1935
Movie Record Is Too Valuable in Solving Case to Lose It, Author Asserts
By Arthur B. Reeve
Author of the Craig Kennedy Detective Series
FLEMINGTON COURT HOUSE, N.J., Feb 2--It is reported that Supreme Court Justice
Trenchard may ban from the court room all moving picture photographers, cameras and sound equipment.
I hope that this is not true.
If he does so, I think it would be a set-back to jurisprudence.
No trial has demonstrated so acutely the need for justice to employ every modern scientific aid to crime detection, investigation and prosecution as has the Hauptmann case.
Jeopardize Solution
Time and again, the authorities, by failing to avail themselves of many opportunities to detect, preserve or analyze evidence available to them by scientific methods, put
in jeopardy the eventual solution of the Lindbergh kidnaping.
As I have pointed out before, whether Hauptman is convicted or acquitted, a large section of the public will never be satisfied that justice has been done, so many were the blunders in handling this case.
A moving picture sound record of this trial is important for many reasons besides the matter of public interest, of the profits to be made, which is, of course, the elementary motive governing the moving picture people.
Valuable for Retrial
Suppose there is a mistrial, or a dismissal of the indictment, or a new trial ordered on appeal; how important it would then become to have available a sound-movie record.
Witnesses may die or disappear. Memories may change. Evidence and exhibits may be lost, or destroyed or altered.
Here, perpetually preserved, is an indisputable record. You can see it all, and you can hear it all, just as if you had been there.
Especially in relation to the human testimony, as distinct from the scientific testimony, how can the printed record ever give--for an appeal or otherwise--the evaluation of the credibility of the witnesses as a sound-movie record would give it?
Facial Expression Vital
No matter what the letter of the law may be, the elementary justice institute may rest largely upon, the scales of justice may be tipped one way or another by, the character of these witnesses as expressed by facial expressions, by body movements, by the quaver or strength of a tone of voice.
A witness who makes little impression upon the jury may sound all right in the record. A witness who is impressive may sound uncertain in the record.
But the movie-sound record gives you exactly as it happened, all the weight of this human testimony.
Angered by Movies
Justice Trenchard is supposed to be angered because an agreement has been violated; movies were not to have been made while court was in session; actually they have been and are now on exhibit. I can readily understand Justice Trenchard's annoyance.
However, I sincerely hope that he is patient and permits the camera in the court room to continue its silent grinding.
Most of all, I hope that the sound-movies of this trial, disclosing many of the shortcomings I have described in the handling of the whole case, will through its obvious lesson bring a reform in modern criminal procedure.
New York Post
Saturday
February 2, 1935