"Due Process," the University's award-winning weekly public television series on law and justice, has begun taping its episodes on location - at home at Rutgers Law School in Newark.
The longtime series, which has won 25 New York and Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards, features episodes that examine social and criminal justice, civil rights, national security, government and politics, race and class and public policy.
A production of Rutgers Law School and Rutgers University-Newark, "Due Process" is devoted exclusively to legal, criminal and social justice. Rutgers Law School Co-dean Ronald K. Chen is an executive producer, and episodes often include professors from the law school and other Rutgers University-Newark programs and schools.
Award-winning journalist Sandra King hosts the weekly series, while writing, reporting and executive producing "Due Process" along with producer Tania Ivanova Bentley.
“Our home is here at the law school, but, for the past five years, we’ve had to leave Newark to tape our show in Piscataway. Although taping in a studio was easier, it was less relevant than bringing our expert guests and our full production into our law school moot courtroom,” said King. “So instead of looking for a new studio, we decided to bring Due Process home; in essence, creating a studio inside the Baker Courtroom for one day – bringing in dozens of lights, four cameras, a teleprompter, a switcher, a crew and at least a quarter mile of cable – and emerging after 12 hours with the elements to build four important new shows.”
According to its website, "Due Process" is, “Guided by a mission to engage and educate the public television audience on the social, legal and policy issues that impact their lives."
King launched "Due Process" 20 years ago at New Jersey Network (NJN), which was then the state-run public station. With the dissolution of NJN five years ago, former law school Dean John Farmer invited the program to make its home at Rutgers Law School.
Recent shows include a two-part special on DNA rape exonerations of those wrongly convicted and imprisoned, a profile of Newark's experimental "community court," and a look at an America divided over what to do about marijuana. In the last year, topics have ranged from reform of the Newark Police to the fight for meaningful drug policy reform; from the complicity in slavery of the nation's most prestigious colleges to the stark reality of solitary confinement in New Jersey's prisons.
King said, “We have just completed a second long week of editing and post-production, upstairs in our Center for Law and Justice office, putting together what we shot in the moot courtroom, and inserting the documentary pieces we’ve shot in the field.”
In addition to award-winning mini-docs, "Due Process" features spirited debate on critical issues, which will continue to be produced on-location in the moot courtroom at Rutgers Law School, and aired five times a week on WNET/13 and NJTV. Current and past episodes of "Due Process" can be viewed on YouTube.com/DueProcessTV or on watch.njtvonline.org/program/due-process, as well as on the "Due Process" website: DueProcessTV.rutgers.edu.
