TV in the Courtroom Debate Comes to Germany

As I have pointed out on a few occasions (see here, here and here), both England and the United States have engaged in debates over whether court proceedings should be televised. In the United States, many lower court cases are televised, and in fact there is a cable channel devoted to showing these cases. Now German Justice Minister Heiko Maas wants some court proceedings in Germany to be televised:

Aus dem Gerichtssaal solle auch in Zukunft keine Showbühne werden, sagte Maas. Die Rechte der Verfahrensbeteiligten müssten gewahrt bleiben. "Aber was von den obersten Gerichten an Recht gesprochen wird, das wirkt sich auf das Zusammenleben unserer Gesellschaft aus."

Interestingly it is the proceedings of the highest courts in both England and the United States where television cameras are still forbidden out of fear that televising these proceedings will in fact create a "Showbühne" atmosphere. The response to Maas' idea from judges on Germany's highest courts was swift and not very welcoming. 

The CSI Effect

For years now prosecutors in the United States have been saying that crime shows such as CSI create unrealistic expectations as to what forensic evidence can prove in a criminal trial. Academics have dubbed this the "CSI Effect," and some wonder whether the fictional depiction of the court system is now negatively impacting how the real court system functions. So it should not be surprising that criminal defendants now also feel that fiction may be interfering with their right to fair trial. This was the argument that was made last week before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, where a man convicted of murder claimed that the jury that convicted him was unduly influenced by the CSI Effect. The Boston Globe has more, but here is a hint as to how the justices responded to this appeal:

Margaret H. Marshall, chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, expressed frustration while hearing an appeal in a Lowell first-degree murder case in which the defense claims a trial judge committed an error when he referenced the television show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. . . .’’

Marshall, however, noted from the bench that a 2006 Yale Law Journal study concluded the “CSI effect’’ was legal fiction and that jurors were not influenced to be against prosecutors. As such, she said, talk about “CSI’’ should be banned in courtrooms across the state.