Three newspapers are asking the Appeals Court of North Carolina to step in calling Judge Fred Wilkins’ decision to bar reporters and the public from potentially controversial proceedings “draconian,” “rash and unsupported.”
“Courts must be fully transparent in all stages and in all proceedings, but those concerns are heightened in cases implicating such important societal issues as the Black Lives Matter movement, individuals’ rights to assembly and free speech,” according to the appeal filed Friday, Dec. 11 on behalf of the Alamance News, News & Observer and Triad City Beat.
The appeal links the Dec. 2 and Dec. 8 District Court hearings to Judge Fred Wilkins and the Oct. 31 “I am Change” march on the last day of early voting. Graham Police and the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office have come under international attention and criticism for breaking up the 150-person crowd with pepper spray over alleged violations of protest permits.
Wilkins barred all but parties to the cases from courtrooms twice, according to the appeal. Dec. 2 was a hearing to determine if Rev. Gregory Drumwright, organizer of the Oct. 31 march, could be banned from Alamance County property while the felony case against him proceeds. And one of the victims in the Dec. 8 case – the sentencing of a white woman who threatened two Black children with her truck – is the daughter of Faith Cook, one of those demonstrators arrested Oct. 31.
Reporters and activists have a lot of interest in both cases, and Alamance News publisher Tom Boney Jr. was taken out of the Alamance County Historic Courthouse in handcuffs for objecting to Wilkins closing the courtroom.
The appeal makes the First Amendment and state constitution arguments that judges need important reasons to administer justice behind closed doors and must show there is no other way that doesn’t violate the public’s right to see justice done for itself.
Wilkins did not show that or even really try, the appeal argues.
In March Chief Justice Cheri Beasley issued orders on the response to COVID-19 saying Superior and District Courts should remain open though she did ask the public go avoid courthouses. There has been no order from Beasley or any Alamance County judge barring the public or media from courtrooms, according to the appeal.
And there are alternatives, the appeal argues. The Historic Courtroom has a 51-person capacity with spacing so seats could be reserved for reporters serving as the “public’s eyes and ears” or even just a single “pool” reporter, but on Dec. 8, according to the appeal, the court didn’t even open the courtroom balcony. The court system could also execute its plan to show proceedings on closed-circuit video to publicly accessible locations.
The appeal cites U.S. and North Carolina Supreme Court decisions about the importance of keeping courts open not just to ensure justice is administered fairly, but to keep the public’s confidence in the justice system.
“That courts are open is one of the sources of their greatest strengths,” the appeal reads citing the State Supreme Court decision in Raper v. Berrier.
Of course, the appeal has lost some of its urgency since Berry suspended many court proceedings for the next 30 days because of the current COVID-19 surge. Court dates had been set to start Monday in some of the Oct. 31 arrests. But there have been dozens of people charged in demonstrations over the summer and fall, and their cases will have to be heard sometime.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Papers appeal court closings
