INTRODUCTION:
What happens in
a courtroom is roughly analogous to what happens at a sporting event.
Both are public performances by numerous players with rules, an enforcer
of those rules, and, of course, winners and losers. Be it at the sports
arena or the courtroom, reporters at each have the same job: report
what happened. This manual seeks to help you do that by explaining the
basics of courtroom procedure and the courts. It was put together by
two of the AP's best court reporters: Dick Carelli and Linda Deutsch.
ABOUT
THE AUTHORS
LINDA DEUTSCH
Linda Deutsch was
named a special correspondent of The Associated Press in 1992
in recognition of her long career as AP's premier courtroom reporter.
This senior reporter designation has been bestowed on just 18
AP reporters in the news service's history.
In 1995, Deutsch
was AP’s lead reporter of the O.J. Simpson trial from beginning to end.
As pool reporter during jury selection and other key points in the trial,
she became a familiar figure to TV viewers across the nation. At trial's
end, AP awarded her the Oliver Gramling Reporter Award for distinguished
reporting.
Deutsch has covered
many famous trials, including those of Sirhan Sirhan, Charles Manson,
Patty Hearst, Angela Davis, Daniel Ellsberg, John De Lorean, Exxon Valdez
skipper Joseph Hazelwood, William Kennedy Smith, the four police
officers accused in the beating of motorist Rodney King and the Menendez
brothers.
Deutsch is a native
of New Jersey and a graduate of Monmouth College, West Long Branch,
N. J. Before joining the AP in Los Angeles in 1967, she worked for the
Perth Amboy (N.J.) News and the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press.
She has received
the University of Missouri School of Journalism's Honor Medal for Distinguished
Service in Journalism and the Society of Professional Journalist's First
Amendment Award for her work in the cause of freedom of information.
RICHARD CARELLI
Richard Carelli
covered the U.S. Supreme Court for The Associated Press from 1976 to
2000. He also covered the Senate confirmations of eight of the nine
justices serving in 1999. He is now a spokesman for the federal courts.
Carelli joined the
AP in 1969 after working at the White Plains, N.Y., Reporter-Dispatch
as a reporter and assistant city editor. He was a reporter in the AP's
Charleston, W.Va., bureau for two years and was correspondent in Huntington,
W.Va., for two years.
He transferred to
the Miami bureau in 1973, and served as the Florida news editor before
moving to the Washington bureau in 1976. In addition to covering
the court, Carelli has assisted AP's regional reporting teams at national
political conventions since 1980.
Carelli holds a
journalism degree from Ohio University and a law degree from George
Washington University. In 1993, he was inducted into the Ohio
University College of Communications' Hall of Fame.
Chapter
1: ABOUT JUDGES AND LAWYERS