Today marks the first full jury trial to be livestreamed out of Jury Room A at the Quincy District Courthouse. To our knowledge, this is the first criminal trial to ever be livestreamed in Massachusetts.

“There is no reason to single OpenCourt out and impose on it a variety of restrictions that do not apply to other media organizations,” Supreme Judicial Court Justice Margot Botsford wrote in a 10-page memorandum and judgment issued yesterday, August 14.

The information office of the highest court in Massachusetts today launched a new online registration process for citizens and news organizations wishing to use cameras and other electronic equipment to cover court hearings throughout the state. The process is a lead-in for amended courtroom media rules that become effective next month.

Stream full audio of Thursday’s four-party hearing before Supreme Judicial Court Margot Justice Botsford.

A hearing before Supreme Judicial Court Justice Margot Botsford is scheduled for 4 p.m. this Thursday, August 9, in Courtroom Two of the John Adams Courthouse in Boston.

Members of OpenCourt have for months openly planned to begin coverage of Jury Room A, and were set to begin livestreaming proceedings on Monday, July 16. Those plans are currently in a temporary state of limbo.

In a scene Friday that echoed a plot line from the film Minority Report, CPCS defense attorney Ethan Yankowicz moved that a charge against his client should be dismissed on grounds the state would essentially be criminalizing a state of mind.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today ruled in favor of OpenCourt’s ability to video record, stream and archive public court proceedings online, writing that restricting rights to publish would violate First Amendment press protections.

The notes from last month’s experiment are, at the least, a compelling glance at the river of data flowing through our local courts every single day. At best, they offer a new angle on approaching larger questions: how do we get to a place where public court data is more accessible?

An 18-year-old accused of murdering three people in Weymouth in November will remain detained without bail following a status hearing today in Quincy District Court.