Perspectives on Judge Ito : It’s Good to Put a Human Face on a God-Like Role : Given the current level of skepticism about public servants, Ito’s TV appearances should be a credibility booster.
The latest firestorm in the O.J. Simpson trial concerns whether Judge Lance A. Ito acted improperly in granting an interview to a local television station. This controversy is laden with ironies. After repeatedly criticizing the media’s obsession with the case, Judge Ito’s own cooperation with the media is, for now, the big story. At the same time, some commentators who previously criticized Ito for being media-phobic, are now lambasting him for doing the interview.
Although the ironies are interesting, they mask the basic point: Ito’s interview will not compromise a fair trial and is enormously important to inform the public about the human being who will be handling the most widely publicized case in American history.
The interview is being shown in five parts over the course of this week. Ito has carefully avoided discussing any aspect of the case. Certainly, it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the evidence or arguments in the matter. But he has not, and from all accounts, will not do that. His comments the first night focused on his family background and especially on the experience of his Japanese American parents who were uprooted from their home in California and interned in Wyoming during World War II. He has also discussed his feelings about his new-found celebrity status and his views about what makes a good judge.
Neither the prosecution nor the defense has been harmed in any imaginable way by these comments. Not even the harshest critics of the interview have suggested that Ito’s comments will interfere with a fair trial.
The interview, however, is very beneficial in that it helps people to see Ito, and judges generally, as human beings. With rare exceptions, people know little about occupants of state and federal courts. The courtroom setting, with a black-robed judge sitting on a raised bench, makes judges seem more God-like than human. Ito’s appearance on the TV interviews allows people to see the jurist as a person with a family, a cultural background and human interests. The pictures of his childhood make it much easier for people to view him not as an oracle of the law, but as a person.
Thus far, the interviews have shown him to be articulate and thoughtful. His moving description of his parents’ experience in internment helps explain why he is a judge and his commitment to fairness. This only can help enhance the credibility of his rulings and, more generally, improve the image of the judiciary.
The interviews could not have come at a better time. After one of the ugliest election campaigns in memory, which gave little reason to feel confidence in, let alone warmth toward, government officials, the interviews engender respect for an important part of the government.
Nor are the interviews unprecedented. The Los Angeles Daily Journal, a newspaper covering the legal system, regularly profiles judges and they frequently are quoted. During the bicentennial celebration of the Constitution in 1987, Justice Harry Blackmun was interviewed by the television show “Superior Court” and the interviews, which also were shown over a week, revealed a self-effacing, highly intelligent man. Judge Ito was interviewed earlier in the Simpson trial by several newspaper reporters and no one objected.
Some call Ito a hypocrite for objecting to the extensive press coverage and then fueling the media circus by doing these interviews. But I think that Ito’s error was in his earlier remarks attacking the media, not in his current behavior. At times, Ito has seemed to engage in a battle with the press, referring to the media derisively as “jackals,” sending letters to media executives trying to control their stories, and even at one point barring the press from the courtroom during jury selection. I hope that these interviews represent a thawing in that frosty relationship.
The reality is that the Simpson trial is, has been, and will continue to be a major news story. More people will learn about the law and the legal system from this case than from any other single event in American history. Rather than criticize or ignore this reality, this week’s TV interviews use the press spotlight to an important benefit: helping people to see judges as human beings.