We urge the South Dakota Legislature to repeal a state law that bans cameras, both television and still photographs, in circuit courtrooms.

The first step in that repeal could come today, when the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to take up SB 77, a bill that would end the prohibition on radio or television broadcasting or newspaper photography of state judicial proceedings.

South Dakota has been slow to open its court system to cameras. In 2001, it became the last state in America to allow them in the chambers of its Supreme Court, and it is long past time that the state's lower courts are also open to the media in this way.

South Dakotans should have the same direct access to the third branch of their government that other Americans enjoy - the ability to see and hear for themselves what transpires in a court of law during a trial or proceeding that is grabbing headlines.

It may sound self-serving whenever a media outlet calls for better access and greater openness in government, but it would be a mistake to view cameras in the courtroom merely as a special privilege for the media. They are, instead, a protection for the rights of all Americans. Give the public the ability to reach their own conclusions about guilt or innocence in high profile trials and, as the televised accounts of O.J. Simpson's murder trial proved, they usually will.

While the Simpson trial is often cited as an example of what is wrong with televised court proceedings, we think cameras in the courtroom, painful as it may be for participants at the time, ultimately serves the cause of justice if only by exposing the miscarriage of justice.

By all accounts, media access to state Supreme Court sessions has been a much more sedate, and more successful experiment. If it has worked well in that setting, we think establishing similar parameters in circuit courtrooms will, too.

We think members of the Judiciary Committee should support SB 77 and help open the state courtrooms to more thorough media coverage.