FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — As the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting case inches closer to trial, the judge overseeing it is setting down strict rules to protect sensitive crime scene photos and videos from leaking to the general public.
Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, expressing concern for the victims and their families, said she will not display the graphic material on television monitors in the courtroom, nor will she allow them to be transmitted to a nearby room where dozens of local and national media outlets will monitor the proceedings.
Some of those outlets, including the South Florida Sun Sentinel, The Associated Press, The New York Times and the publisher of the Miami Herald, argued that the media should have a First Amendment right of access to the pictures and video because they are being used by the state in arguing for the execution of confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people at the Parkland high school on Feb. 14, 2018.
