RULE 53. REGULATION OF CONDUCT IN THE COURTROOM [REPEALED]
No camera, sound recorder, or other device, except those operated for official purposes, by or under the direction of the court, shall be used to photograph, record, or broadcast proceedings of the court, nor shall such devices be brought in or allowed to remain in the courtroom while proceedings are in progress.
EXPLANATORY NOTE
Rule 53 was repealed, effective March 1, 2001. The substance of Rule 53 is contained in N.D.R.Ct. 10.1.
Rule 53 is adopted in the language of North Dakota Rules of Court 10.1 [Conduct in Court] and Administrative Rule 21 [Electronic and Photographic Coverage of Court Proceedings] and prohibits photographing, broadcasting, televising or recording proceedings of the court except those operated for official purposes. The Rule preserves the courtroom as a place of dignity, where the quest for truth goes on quietly and without fanfare and where the utmost precautions are taken to keep all extraneous influences from making themselves felt. [See Douglas, The Public Trial and the Free Press, 1960, 46 A.B.A.J. 840.] The language of the Rule implements the holding of the United States Supreme Court in Estes, in which the court said that a defendant is deprived of his Due Process under the Fourteenth Amendment when the trial is televised. [Estes v. Texas, 381 U.S. 532, 85 S.Ct. 1628, 14 L.Ed.2d 543, rehearing denied, 382 U.S. 875, 86 S.Ct. 18, 15 L.Ed.2d 118 (1965).]
SOURCES: Joint Procedure Committee Minutes of April 21, 1984, page 5; February 20-23, 1973, pages 12-13; December 10-12, 1970, page 19; Fed.R.Crim.P. 53; Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure: Criminal, § 861 (1969); 8A Moore's Federal Practice, Chapter 53 (Cipes, 2d Ed. 1970); see A.B.A. Standards for Criminal Justice, Standards Relating to Fair Trial and Free Press, § 3.5 (Approved Draft, 1968).
STATUTES AFFECTED: None.
CROSS REFERENCE: N.D.R.Crim.P. 42 (Contempt); N.D.R.Ct. 10.1 (Conduct in Court); AR 21 (Electronic and Photographic Coverage of Court Proceedings).