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still photos and video. He also meticu- lously documented a 26-month break- in spree that began in September 2007 in Tweed, Ont., where he has a home. He crept into houses there and near his second home in Ottawa, while the occu- pants were away, and rifled through the underwear drawers of young girls and women. He dressed in the undergar- ments, masturbated, and photographed himself. He stole and catalogued hun- dreds of pieces of lingerie. His detention in February 2009 and the reports leaked to the media within days that he had confessed to all of the crimes set off a media frenzy that culminated in a sensational four-day plea-and-sentencing hearing held in a small courthouse in Belleville, Ont., last October. Dozens of reporters, includ- ing a correspondent from The New York Times, attended. The lurid case was completed in a breathtakingly brief eight months. It was, from many perspectives, "unprecedented," says Edelson, and a case he believes should spark serious debate in the legal community. "I think there should be a roundtable of leading defence, prosecution, [and] judges to discuss the implications of new media and management of files that are very high profile and the development of rules of practice and rules of profes- sional responsibility to deal with these issues so that lawyers don't get offside," he says. His firm took extraordinary steps to ensure the security of the disclosure they received. "We banned all of our law clerks from actually looking at the mate- rial," says Edelson. "First time I've ever done it in 34 years." The step was neces- sary, he felt, to maintain security and to insulate staff from the graphic content. "It was very apparent to Michael and I quite early in the process that some of the evidence was quite graphic and, as was alluded to in the courtroom, it was very disturbing," says Edelson's partner Vince Clifford. Added Edelson: "Between us, Vince and I have about 60 years of expe- rience almost and we've done a lot of murder cases and we've seen the autopsy shots and terrible evidentiary scenes but this one was quite different." Outside the Belleville, Ont., court- house on the final day of hearings for Russell Williams. An associate who was asked to work on the file was briefed about the nature of the material and was offered the chance to decline. "We wanted him to be forewarned, however, that in work- ing on this file he would be exposed to things that he would never forget," says Edelson. In the end, only a handful of staff were involved. Edelson is concerned about the use of electronic devices by reporters in the munication of the evidence, this means that all subsequent witnesses have access to the evidence in court as it's unfolding." It renders the traditional witness exclu- sion order "worthless," says Edelson. "I would like to see our rules of practice amended . . . in order to address these issues and give judges and lawyers clear guidance. I think the law societies across Canada, the federation of law societies, should strike a committee to address the new media issues and how they will impact on trials and court proceedings." Retired Superior Court justice Tom Lally, who watched the Williams case unfold in his backyard in Belleville, where he now lives, thought a balance was struck in allowing journalists to report from the courtroom. "I know Rob Scott, the judge, he agonized over it and felt that this is the coming trend, to have more public accessibility to the courts," says Lally, who retired three years ago after 25 years on the bench. He says he doesn't expect to see the practice permitted widely. "I don't see "We banned all of our law clerks from actually looking at the material. First time I've ever done it in 34 years." MICHAEl EDElSON, EDElSON ClIFFORD D'ANGElO BARRISTERS llP courtroom to instantly transmit stories and pictures. Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert F. Scott, who presided over the case, permitted reporters to use smartphones and laptops in the courtroom. Media were not permitted to take pictures inside the courtroom, but they were able to instantly transmit unfiltered accounts of the graphic evi- dence through Twitter and live blogs. It wasn't the first time such an order was granted in a criminal case in Canada, but Edelson believes a key issue has not been addressed. "Typically in a criminal case we really value the order excluding witnesses so that one witness can't tailor their evidence to the next witness," he says. "If you have instantaneous com- 28 JAN UARY 2011 www. CANADIAN Lawye rmag.com it coming in every case. This was an exceptional case." Lally presided over at least 20 murder trials during his career. "I don't think I've ever seen anybody like [Williams]," he says. Over the roughly four days of the proceeding, and despite the accused's guilty plea with its mandatory sen- tence and fixed-parole ineligibility, the Crown tendered a mountain of evi- dence, including roughly 3,000 pho- tographs taken by Williams. During the proceeding, Crown attorney Lee Burgess said he struggled over what evidence to tender but wanted to ensure parole board members, considering the risk Williams poses decades from now, Fred Th ornhill / Reuters