NJN To Receive
Philadelphia Press Association’s
Television Awards on June 25

STATEWIDE – NJN Public Television will be awarded all four television awards, described below, at the Philadelphia Press Association’s 59 th Anniversary Dinner on Friday, June 25, at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia.

First Place Winner in the Public Service Television Category
Conversation with Deborah Poritz
Host: Kent Manahan
Producer: Ed Rodgers

 Shortly after her reappointment to the New Jersey Supreme Court, Chief Justice Deborah Poritz spoke to Kent Manahan in this exclusive television interview. This was an opportunity for the people of New Jersey to hear from the Chief Justice first hand about the business of the Court, how opinions are written and how decisions are made on taking on a case. The Chief Justice spoke candidly about her perspective as a legal scholar and as the first woman Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court and addresses some of the criticisms leveled against the high court, which has a national reputation as one of the most respected supreme courts in the country. Members of the New Jersey Supreme Court only grant interviews on rare occasions such as when they assume the post or are reappointed.   

First Place Winner Television Feature Category
Due Process: The Strange Case of Bobby Cumber
Producer: Sandra King

Mandatory sentences: Do they help promote fairness and ensure that the law is applied as its writers intended?  Or do they tie the hands of judges and, by removing the possibility for individual evaluation of each case on its merits, create a sentencing nightmare?   On this edition of Due Process, the pros and cons of mandatory sentencing are examined. This program is funded by the New Jersey State Bar Association and the NJ Lawyers and Diary Manual. 

In this program, we meet an ailing, elderly prisoner serving a mandatory 30 years for his role in the Robert Marshall murder-for-hire case.  But in an exclusive interview, we learn from his now retired trial judge that he always had doubts about Bobby Cumber’s guilt, that he considered Cumber’s role to be minimal – at most – and that he would have applied a drastically shorter sentence were it not for the demands of the mandatory minimum sentence for conspiracy to murder. Host Raymond Brown manages a lively debate on mandatory sentencing, featuring New Jersey Public Defender Yvonne Segars, Monmouth County First Assistant Prosecutor Bob Honecker and retired Superior and Appellate Court Judge Isaiah Steinberg.

 First Place Winner in Enterprise Reporting Television
Branch Brook Park: Legacy of the Gilded Age
Producer: Leandra Little
Executive: Producer Jeff Friedman

An NJN special, Branch Brook Park: Legacy of the Gilded Age, traces Branch Brook’s origin as the first park in the Essex County Park System and looks at its development, realization and expansion to its present day 360 acres. Branch Brook reflects the philosophy of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., pioneer landscape architect, which is that an urban park system can and should serve as common ground where all people can come for respite. The park is a mature landscape, a realization of the senior Olmsted’s vision brought to life by his stepson, John Charles Olmsted. The most touching chapter of the story, however, is told by those who feel the park is part of their lives. As the 19 th century saplings have matured into stately elms, evergreens and red maples, so too have successive generations matured, their lives shaped and shaded by the boughs of the stately trees. “The park has given me something,” says ninety-three-year-old Ralph Martino, who grew up on the edge of Branch Brook Park, courted his wife there, and still strolls its pathways every day. “It’s given me life.” Narrated by Charles Osgood, CBS News veteran.  

First Place Winner Television Magazine Feature Category
The Race for Open Space
Executive Producer: Janice Selinger;
Producer: Lynn Kosek Walker
Associate Producers : Dari Mandell and Sia Nyorkor;
Post Production Editor: Tim Hufnell

America is in a race that will shape the future – a race between development and open space preservation. With the environmental clock ticking fast, many government officials, environmentalists and developers are looking at New Jersey to see what the future may hold.