Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406050037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Robert Morris was robbed and killed April 2 while working at a Lightfoot 7-Eleven.
Margaret Chabris, the national spokeswoman for the 7-Eleven chain, came from Dallas for the same reason.
They, and Morris' other relatives and co-workers, spent most of Friday morning in the hall instead of in the courtroom. They did not get to hear the 13-year-old boy accused of pulling the trigger plead guilty to murder.
Unlike criminal cases involving adults, juvenile cases are routinely closed to everyone except the defendants, their parents and court personnel. However, judges have the discretion to allow others access after weighing the juvenile's rights against the public's right to information.
Three of the defendants who had hearings Friday are juveniles. Judge Tom Hoover granted access to media organizations that had filed motions at least 24 hours earlier. All others were excluded from the courtroom.
Reporters from the Daily Press of Newport News, WAVY-TV in Portsmouth and WVEC-TV of Norfolk were allowed in. A reporter from the Virginia Gazette, the defendants' friends and relatives other than their parents, and Morris' family and friends were shut out.
A fourth defendant was an adult, and her hearing Friday was open to everyone.
"One of the purposes of the juvenile system is to foster the rehabilitation" of youthful offenders, a goal that can sometimes be served most appropriately by shielding them from public scrutiny, said Stephen Noona, the Daily Press' attorney, after the hearings.
However, the growing number of serious juvenile crimes is forcing judges to grapple more often with the conflict between the juvenile system's usual protections and the public's right to know the facts about violent crime committed in their communities and its prosecution, Noona said.
"The court correctly allowed the Daily Press access to these very important hearings" on Friday, Noona said, "but, for unstated reasons, chose to exclude the public in general. Typically, where the press is granted access, so too is the public."
Admitting reporters while excluding Morris' family "seems skewed," said Joan Uhlar, chairwoman of Justice for Victims of Crime Inc., a Virginia Beach-based advocacy group that she and her husband founded after their son was killed in a robbery in 1985. Except for the accused perpetrators, the victim's family has the biggest stake in the court proceedings, she said.
Although some people cannot understand why survivors would want to put themselves through a recounting of the crime, for many it is important to be at all hearings, to represent their loved one, to know what really happened and why, and to get closure, she said.
"To be shut out of the process hinders healing," she said.
Morris' family declined to discuss how they felt about being denied access to the hearings, explaining that they feared saying anything that might jeopardize the successful prosecution of the youths.
"We got to see [the defendants]," said Sylvia Babcock, one of Morris' daughters. "That was important."
by CNB