TV Banned From Clinic Shooting Trial

A judge decided Thursday to bar television cameras from the murder trial of John C. Salvi III, saying the cameras might incite him to further outbursts and increase the risk of harm to witnesses and survivors of the abortion clinic attacks.

Lawyers on both sides of the case, as well as Planned Parenthood, had asked for the courtroom ban, which does not apply to newspaper photographers.

Salvi faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted of killing two women and wounding five other people in the shotgun attacks at two clinics in Brookline on Dec. 30, 1994.

Norfolk Superior Court Judge Barbara Dortch-Okara said television cameras might encourage Salvi, who has disrupted proceedings in the past, to further outbursts, and increase the likelihood jurors would learn more about the case than they should.

She also said in her written opinion that cameras would increase the risk of harm to witnesses, surviving victims and their families.

Court TV had planned live coverage of the trial, scheduled to begin Feb. 5. Other media outlets arguing against the ban included CBS, New England Cable News, Hearst Corp. and the Radio Television News Directors Association.

“We think that the public would have been served by televising the case and letting them see for themselves what occurred in it,” Court TV attorney Floyd Abrams said.

Abrams had told the judge the network would agree not to broadcast witnesses’ faces, and that jurors could be trusted not to watch television coverage.