The Americans have borrowed the ancient liberty of the right to public trial from the Anglo Saxon jurisprudence.
Earlier attempts to shut out members of the public from the criminal trial in sensitive matters were met with stiff resistance. Public criminal proceedings stand in the way of malicious prosecutions, corrupt practices and purchasable witnesses. The openness and transparency also encourage the public to come out with relevant information in their knowledge.
In view of the Public Trial Clause of the Sixth Amendment, friends and relatives of the defendant are allowed to attend the trial on priority basis. However, parents, spouses and children who might disrupt the proceedings are not let in courtrooms.
The right to public trial under the Sixth Amendment, which is personal to the defendant, does not cover the media or the general public. The public or the media enjoy a qualified First Amendment right to attend criminal proceedings.
The First Amendment does not let in everybody who wants to attend a criminal trial into the courtroom. The First Amendment does not require the courts to telecast any legal proceeding under legal obligation. Courts follow the lottery system for allowing spectators into trials that generate tremendous public interest. The local and national newspapers and television stations are usually given permanent courtroom seats. A separate lottery can also organized for other members of the media not provided with such courtroom seats. Public and the media persons who cannot be accommodated in the courtroom are sometimes allowed to watch the proceedings on a closed circuit television set in a separate audio room.
In exceptional cases the public or the media may not be allowed to watch the criminal proceedings. The court may decide to hold a particular stage of any criminal proceeding in private for good reasons. For instance witness action on sensitive classified government information or trade secrets may be in private at the discretion of the court. During testimony of a victim of sexual abuse, the courtroom may be closed to the public to avoid embarrassment of the witness.
Both court- martial and juvenile delinquency proceedings are held in private. When a defendant waives his right to public trial, the proceedings are held in private.
