Sunday, January 21, 2007

Trial of the Century

This promises to be a crazy week. California had the OJ trial and "Camp OJ". Here in Vancouver, more specifically New Westminister, we have the Pickton Trial and the soon to be dubbed "Camp Pickton".
For those of you not familiar with the case, Robert William Pickton is accused in the deaths and disappearances of scores of women from the downtown East Side of Vancouver. This trial he is being prosecuted on only 6 of the murders. The trial is expected to last for at least a year. It is said to be the biggest trial of it's kind in Canadian history. He is being tried by Jury.

There are something like 300 journalists accredited for this trial. They come from as far away as Germany. Needless to say all of the Canadian Networks and many representing the US networks will be here as well.

My part in all of this began a couple of days ago with a prep piece on how the Sheriffs dept is getting ready for this Trial of the Century.
Monday morning it really begins, with the first day opening remarks by both the Crown and the Defence. I will be blogging about my time on this assignment, but not about the legal or about the testimony. Hell I have no plans to be inside the court room regardless. But I do hope to give you, the reader ( and I thank you all for coming back to read the ramblings of a wanna be writer) a sense of what it is like to cover such a story.
My function will be a live position, handling CTV Newsnet, CTV National and CTV Local hits into the various shows. I spent the day today with my colleagues Dave Alexander and Gary Tapp, lighting, faxing, checking and double checking our covered camera positions just outside the courthouse doors.
It all begins for TV anyway at 3AM, pacific, the crew call for shift #1 at "Camp Pickton". Let the Drama, Begin.

I guess I should get some sleep,,,,,,,,,

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome job so far Mur. I saw you in a clip in Brent's story where you were standing behind the camera doing a hit with Kate.

Anonymous said...

Awesome job so far Mur. I saw you in a clip in Brent's story; you were behind the camera for what looked like a hit with Kate. In my view CTV had the best coverage of all Canadian stations. NewsNet did a good job too throughout the day.

Murman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Murman said...

Thanks for the kind word Jeremy. I hope to have some photos up soon, but right now all I need is some sleep.

Valley Newshound said...

the next week should be interesting. We will have to see what station comes out on top. I do enjoy your ramblings. drop me a e mail sometime.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and sorry for the multiple post. I thought that it didn't send the first time.