Proceedings

Some people go to criminal court because they want to. To watch. A quiet courtroom at the Police Administration Building is open 24 hours a day - everyday - for preliminary arraignments, and spectators can sit on the well-worn benches and watch the proceedings. It's not always uplifting, but it can be very interesting. It provides a chance to view a human panorama and get a firsthand look at the justice system in action. It's 6:40 p.m. on a Thursday. The woman has been sitting on a bench for five hours.

Videotape equipment should replace stenographers to keep official court records in New Jersey, according to the recommendations of a state Supreme Court committee report released yesterday. Spokesmen for court reporters said the panel's proposals required additional study. The 63-page report by the Supreme Court Committee on Court Reporting suggested that each of the 21 counties begin by recording proceedings on videotape in at least one courtroom. The timetable for the switch would be determined by the high court.

It was a moment of peace and forgiveness in a morning filled with angst and anger yesterday for two families on opposite sides of a drunk-driving accident. Bill Hughes, whose wife and mother-in-law died in the May 2003 crash, embraced Ricki Scarborough, the husband of the woman responsible for killing the two women from Gloucester County. "I've been so angry for so long," Hughes told Scarborough just after a Superior Court judge sentenced Carlitta Scarborough to 12 years in prison.

Is it time for more courts to televise their proceedings, or will that lead to lawyers playing to the cameras?

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Constitution's Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination does not apply to civil proceedings concerning treatment, not punishment, for sex offenders. In a 5-4 decision , the court decided that an Illinois man faced with psychiatric commitment as a "sexually dangerous person" was not entitled to certain protections afforded to criminal defendants. The court rejected the appeal of Terry B. Allen, who was committed in civil - rather than criminal - proceedings to the maximum-security psychiatric ward at the Menard, Ill., State Prison, mostly on the basis of testimony from two court-appointed psychiatrists.

The unfolding judicial proceedings against former top aides to President Reagan in connection with the Iran-Contra scandal, along with Reagan's controversial decision last night to send troops to Honduras, may be doing more to change the chemistry of the 1988 race for president than any developments to date. The emerging plea bargains and indictments in the Iran-Contra scandal are giving Democrats fresh ammunition for their 1988 assault on the White House. And deeper involvement in the civil war involving the Nicaraguan Contras adds fuel to the Democrats' charges of mismanaged foreign policy.

Attorneys for The Inquirer and the Daily News filed an emergency appeal yesterday, asking Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices to open the secret trial proceedings of the troubled Lex Street massacre case. The newspapers want the state's highest court to order Common Pleas Court Judge Gregory E. Smith to conduct Monday's scheduled hearing in open court. If the Supreme Court declines to immediately open the proceedings, the attorneys for the newspapers have asked the justices to halt further closed hearings in the death-penalty case until the court can more fully weigh the issues at stake.

About this Municipal Court Judge Arthur S. Kafrissen. I think he should be punished more than just being censured. He should be thrown off the bench for his disgraceful conduct. But according to the judge running the proceedings, that's all that can be done to Judge Kafrissen. Well, like they say, they protect their own. Birds of a feather flock together, so they say. I could write more but it wouldn't do any good. Edward J. Zebuski Philadelphia.

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to consider whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court improperly barred former Common Pleas Court Judge Bernard Snyder from regaining office. The court, without comment, refused to consider Snyder's contention that the state high court acted improperly when it voted in March that he was unfit to serve on the bench, based on its finding that he had violated the Code of Judicial Conduct. When the state Supreme Court acted, Snyder had been off the court for more than a year, having been voted out of office in a 1985 retention election.

For rowing aficionados planning to partake in the 75th annual Dad Vail Regatta, president Jim Hanna wants you to know that the race is still on - with just a few minor alterations. Yesterday, practices were canceled due to a mixture of inclement weather and river conditions, leaving questions about today's proceedings. Officials decided to push the start time from 7 to 8 a.m. to accommodate the hundreds of teams and onlookers expected along Kelly Drive today. In addition, teams will race in a head-to-head format as opposed to the traditional side-by-side style that, according to Hanna, allows for a "safer way to row given the current conditions.

By Khan Mohammad Danishju Despite President Obama's surprise visit to Afghanistan last week to sign a far-reaching agreement committing the United States to long-term support of the embattled nation, many Afghans remain fearful about what will happen after the last of the foreign security forces depart at the end of 2014. One indication of this growing concern is the increasing number of Afghans leaving the country. According to Mohammad Nader Farhad, a spokesman for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 30,000 Afghans sought asylum in Europe in 2011, a 30 percent increase over the previous year.

NEW YORK - A hotel maid's sexual assault lawsuit against Dominique Strauss-Kahn can go forward to trial, a judge ruled Tuesday, rebuffing the former International Monetary Fund leader's diplomatic-immunity claim. Bronx state Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon's ruling kept alive the civil case that emerged from a May 2011 hotel-room encounter that also spurred now-dismissed criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn, then a French presidential hopeful. The episode was the first in a series of allegations about his sexual conduct that sank his political career.

It may be time to cancel the lynching. A month ago, in a gated community in central Florida, a neighborhood watch volunteer named George Zimmerman confronted a hoodie-wearing black teenager named Trayvon Martin. According to witnesses, a scuffle ensued, and it ended when Zimmerman shot and killed Martin. After investigating, the police did not bring charges. And then Jesse Jackson intoned that black Americans are "under attack. " The New Black Panther Party posted a $10,000 reward for Zimmerman's capture.

CAIRO - Egypt pushed ahead Sunday with the trial of 43 employees of pro-democracy groups, including 16 Americans, even as Egyptian and U.S. officials tried to resolve the case that has caused the deepest rift in their alliance in 30 years. In a sign those back-channel negotiations may already be bearing fruit, only Egyptian defendants attended the hearing and the judge gave no instructions to police to ensure the American and other foreign defendants attend the next hearing in two months.

Well into the critical planning phase for expanding Philadelphia International Airport, it's troubling that the airlines on the hook for much of the cost are not yet sold on a key feature - the addition of a $3 billion runway designed to ease delays. Even though officials at the city-owned airport insist "the runway needs to go in" - and with Mayor Nutter understandably eager to move ahead on a project he views as critical to the region's jobs picture and economic growth - the runway dispute needs to be resolved first in the airport's overall best interest.

After months of study, the Corbett administration said Tuesday that it was moving forward with a key - and widely supported - option offered by the federal health-care overhaul: a state-run insurance exchange. Exchanges have gained neither the high-profile status nor the derision aimed at other parts of President Obama's program. But they are expected to transform the arduous process of buying health insurance for millions of people who get coverage individually or are covered by small businesses.

The trial in the 2009 double murders at the Piazza at Schmidts complex was thrown into turmoil Friday when the admitted shooter reneged on his promise to testify for the prosecution. Donnell Murchison's refusal to testify brought the fifth day of the Common Pleas Court trial to an abrupt halt, made permanent by a fire drill requiring evacuation of the Criminal Justice Center. Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart called it a day but ordered prosecution and defense lawyers to return Monday prepared to address the question of whether Murchison should be held in contempt of court and, if so, how the trial could proceed.

A deaf, mute, and illiterate man charged in a Montgomery County drug trafficking case will never be able to stand trial because of his inability to communicate, his attorney said in court filings. Lawyers petitioned Common Pleas Court last week to drop charges against Juan Jose Gonzalez Luna, 43, due to his supposed powerlessness to participate in his own defense or understand the legal proceedings against him. His case - part of an investigation into an international drug smuggling ring based in King of Prussia - has drawn attention to the challenges defendants with limited language capabilities pose to the legal system - obstacles, prosecutors say, that made Gonzalez a perfect criminal.

The Philadelphia Orchestra Association is seeking a loan to help fund operations through the end of its bankruptcy case, and has applied to U.S. Bankruptcy Court for permission to assume $3.1 million in debt to pay operating costs, including salaries and vendor bills. "Unless these expenses are paid, the debtor will be forced to cease operations, which would likely result in irreparable harm to its organization and jeopardize the debtor's ability to reorganize and maximize value for all interested parties," the association stated in papers filed Wednesday.

Is it time for more courts to televise their proceedings, or will that lead to lawyers playing to the cameras?