Edelin Controversy

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office will argue in court today that WGBH should not be allowed to televise a dramatization of the Edelin trial next week, Sylvia Davis, Creative Manager at the public television station said yesterday.

Dr. Kenneth C. Edelin, an obstetrician at Boston City Hospital, was convicted of manslaughter here on February 15 for the death of a fetus following an abortion. Edelin is currently appealing the conviction.

The complaint, filed at the Superior Court on Friday by Garrett H. Byrne Suffolk County Dist. Atty., charges that the program will have an "inevitable prejudicial effect" on any subsequent trial of Edelin.

Byrne is requesting that the court prevent WGBH from showing the program until the case is finally settled.

David O. Ives '41, president of WGBH, said in a statement released on Monday that the station will fight the action because the dramatization's dialogue is "exactly as it appears in the official transcript," and will therefore not prejudice the appeal.

Ives contends that the First Amendment provision for freedom of the press protects the re-enactment of the trial on television, since newspapers are permitted by law to publish trial transcripts.

The District Attorney's office was unavailable for comment yesterday.