No pop star comes and goes under the protection of a manservant's parasol. The defendant is not a football player-turned actor. Satellite trucks do not ring the courthouse.
But by Fulton County Courthouse standards, the murder-for-hire case against James V. Sullivan is pretty close to a celebrity trial, spawning less of a big media circus and more of a small media carnival.
The eighth floor of the Justice Center Tower crawls with gavel-to-gavel reporters and crews from Court TV, "48 Hours" and People magazine, along with local scribes and broadcast personnel. They mostly hang out in a media room filled with computers, video screens and mixing tables.
The first seven days of the trial have provided plenty of good visual and verbal material.
Overseen by courteous, dryly humorous Judge John J. Goger, both the prosecution and defense teams seem as if they could have stepped directly out of an episode of "Law & Order" -- polished, attractive and well prepared. Of course, because Buckhead socialite Lita Sullivan was murdered in 1987, both sides have had plenty of time to get ready.
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