A Day In The Life Of The Moussaoui Trial -- Part 2 of 2
You've already gotten a sense of what it was like outside the Zacarias Moussaoui sentencing trial yesterday, so here's part II of the story -- a look inside the courthouse and inside the "Evening News" story on the trial's opening day.
Things started to stir up outside the courthouse around 12:30 p.m., once the jury and alternates were selected and Associated Press reporter Matthew Barakat came outside to brief reporters on details from the jury selection process. (You can watch his briefing
.) Because the courtroom was filled with the 86 members of the jury pool during that proceeding, only two media representatives were allowed in – one from the print media (Barakat) and one pool sketch artist (instead of having a representative from the television network pool, the networks sacrificed their seat for a sketch artist, since Barakat would be relaying the same information as a television pool reporter would.)More of the press was allowed into an overflow courtroom during the proceeding, which has several closed circuit televisions set up with a wide, static shot of the courtroom. The shot does not include a view of the jurors and Moussaoui is not equipped with a microphone. So, for this particular element of the trial, reporters relied on Barakat for descriptions of each of the jurors – their races and genders – as well as other details such as whether they made eye contact with the defendant. Barakat noted that Moussaoui's only utterance so far was a request to use the bathroom.
Video: For the rest of the trial, there are reserved seats for the media in the regular courtroom (about 30 seats that were requested by news outlets and sketch artists in December) and the overflow courtroom is filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
You don't need media credentials to sit in the overflow courtroom – it is, after all a public building (which, after being corralled in a barricaded press area, is easily forgotten.) Basically all you need is a driver's license and you have to get there before they run out of spots. About an hour before opening statements were set to begin, I was able to get a seat in the overflow room.
I went through one security check at the courthouse entrance and another outside the overflow courtroom before arriving inside, where three flat screen monitors showed the wide shot I described above. By the time the statements were set to begin, the room was pretty much full of reporters as well as others who didn't appear to be with the press.
Computers, BlackBerries, cell phones and the like are not allowed in the courthouse, so reporters are equipped only with pads and pens. There is no gum chewing, eating, drinking or reading of newspapers allowed inside the courtrooms (including the overflow room, where I saw a woman get busted for chewing gum.) Once the proceedings start, there's no talking.
Moussaoui's mother was seated in the front row, which appeared to be reserved for her, a translator and some companions. Reporters are not allowed to interview anyone inside the courthouse – so while Moussaoui's mother seemed a likely subject, reporters had to approach her outside the building if they wanted interviews.
During opening statements, Lambidakis and Andrew Cohen were paying particular attention to lawyers' previews of what evidence would be presented during the trial – because outside of how it is described during the trial, the media won't be able to see the evidence. In February, the court ordered that none of the exhibits entered into evidence would be available to the public until the trial is over.
Once you obtain a pass to the overflow courtroom, you are able to leave and re-enter at your leisure. Cohen, who was filing periodic reports for CBS Radio, left about every 40 minutes to file and Lambidakis remained in the room taking notes. Stewart was in the other courtroom where the actual trial was being held.
Following opening statements, there was a break before the first witness was called. With that, everyone exited the courtrooms. Stewart and Lambidakis met briefly in the foyer to discuss what elements Stewart wanted for his piece – video, graphics and sketches that he would be using and Lambidakis headed downstairs into a room full of payphones, where she and about 10 other reporters were making calls. She called producer Rob Hendin at the Washington bureau and discussed what had happened so far and told him what elements Stewart wanted to use. Meanwhile, associate producer Josh Gross got a hold of the courtroom sketches from the artist that CBS was using and brought them outside so the cameraman could shoot them and feed them to the bureau.
After listening to the beginning of the first witness's testimony, Stewart headed back to CBS's office space near the courthouse to start writing his script. His piece is set to lead of the broadcast and he has about two hours until the "Evening News" is live.
While the presence of Moussaoui's mother – who had given an interview to CNN a day earlier -- seemed to generate a bit of buzz among the press that day, Stewart didn't try to get an interview with her. "Moussaoui's mother has been on television a lot recently," Stewart told me. "She's going to say what you expect a mother to say." Stewart noted that the broadcast would include Sharyn Alfonsi's story (you can watch it
) about a 9/11 families that were watching the trial remotely from courthouses outside of Alexandria, Va. "So I don't think we're losing the human element here," he said. "A trial is a trial and I'm interested in the evidence."At around 6 p.m., we headed up to the press area, where Stewart would shoot his live standup for the end of his piece. The street that we were going to walk up was now closed since Moussaoui was being transported back to jail, so we had to take a different route to get back to the stand-up location – hearing the sirens that accompanied Moussaoui's transportation as we walked. We got there, Stewart got mic'd up and he waited for his cue.
And at around 6:27 p.m., something happened.
"Something happened to the piece," said Gross, who was on the phone with the New York control room. He wasn't sure what the problem was yet, but the lead ended up being rearranged so that Anthony Mason's piece on the AT&T-Bell South merger led the show, followed by David Martin's report on the Pentagon's probe into Pat Tillman's death. Stewart's piece aired third.
After that, it was determined that the 7 p.m. feed of the broadcast would be re-arranged with Stewart's piece at the top of the show, so he did another live tag. We learned afterwards that the delay had something to do with a technical problem with a graphic element in the piece.
Stewart said that because the Moussaoui story relies so much on graphics like courtroom sketches to get a sense of what's going on during the trial, the story could become "particularly problematic."
All of the graphics for "Evening News" segments – regardless of where they are cut -- are input by the graphics department in New York, adding one more layer of complication to every story. According to Jim McGlinchy, senior producer for the "Evening News" in Washington, last night's problem was basically a "miscommunication" in the graphics control room in New York about the pictures that were needed for the piece.
And that's pretty much how it went, folks. It's obviously a complex trial, making coverage of it all that much more challenging, and I've likely only scratched the surface in describing a sense of what it's actually like. We'll be keeping our Eyes peeled to see how the whole thing plays out, but if you're in the mood, head on down to Alexandria, Va., and check it out yourself.