SPRINGFIELD, Ill. • The Illinois court system is finally ready for prime time.

Following a path that Missouri took two decades ago, and which most other states have followed, Illinois will begin allowing limited video and still pictures in its trial courts, effective immediately, the Illinois Supreme Court announced Tuesday.

"This is another step to bring more transparency and more accountability to the Illinois court system," Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride said in a prepared statement.

The new policy will be introduced on a "circuit by circuit" basis, the court said. It puts the onus on the chief judges in each of the 23 circuits to apply to the Supreme Court to join the program.

The chief judges in the circuits that include Madison and St. Clair counties said Tuesday they are considering it.

The announcement takes Illinois off the list of 14 states that still bar all cameras from trial courtrooms, and comes after years of lobbying by Illinois media organizations.

Proponents say it will give Illinois citizens a more complete picture than news stories — and a more accurate portrayal than television dramas.

"It should improve (journalists') ability to accurately report what happens in a courtroom ... It's a better source of information," said Don Craven, a Springfield-based First Amendment lawyer who represents the Illinois Press Association, the Illinois Broadcasters' Association and other media groups.

"Equally important is that citizens will be able to see what happens in a court," Craven said. "There is a misrepresentation of what happens in a courtroom. We can blame (television shows like) 'Law & Order' for that."

Opponents say the policy could diminish the decorum of the court, by prompting the kind of lawyerly preening for the cameras that the nation saw in what was arguably the most infamous of all televised trials: the O.J. Simpson murder trial in California in 1995. They say it also could directly affect cases by scaring away witnesses.

"It's hard enough to get someone to testify, and now here they are leading off the news," complained John O'Gara, the St. Clair County public defender.

O'Gara represented Christopher Coleman, who was convicted last year of killing his wife and two young sons in Columbia, Ill. The trial spurred daily news coverage and mobs of people outside the courthouse in Waterloo.

"Just think about how much bigger that mob would have been if the trial was broadcast gavel-to-gavel on television?" O'Gara asked.

O'Gara said a number of national television producers told him the case would have received "Casey Anthony-like" daily coverage if cameras had been allowed. Anthony was acquitted last year in Florida of killing her daughter, in a televised trial that captivated the nation.

That notoriety could soon be repeated in Illinois, which is set to try Chicago-area ex-police officer Drew Peterson. He has been charged with killing one ex-wife and has long been a suspect in the disappearance of another. The case has already drawn intense national attention, even before the new possibility that the trial would be broadcast.

Despite those concerns, Ann Callis, the chief judge of the 3rd Judicial Circuit, which includes Madison County, said Tuesday she "is leaning toward applying to become part of the pilot project."

Callis said she would consult with the other judges in her circuit before making a final decision. She said the Illinois Supreme Court order was "well thought-out" and would protect the rights of everyone involved.

That order gives trial judges wide discretion to control the potential negative effects of cameras, including the option to bar photography of police informants and victims of violent crimes. It also sets limits of two television cameras and two still cameras per courtroom, and bars all cameras from juvenile trials, divorces, adoptions and child custody cases.

John Baricevic, the chief judge of the 20th Circuit, which includes St. Clair and Monroe counties, said he was surprised by the order. "It caught us a little unawares," he explained. He said he would circulate the order among judges and other court officers to seek input.

Of course, the highest-profile crimes in recent years in Illinois involved its top state office. Two consecutive former governors, Republican George Ryan and Democrat Rod Blagojevich, were convicted of corruption in trials that certainly would have been national TV ratings blockbusters.

However, neither of those cases would have been affected by Tuesday's policy change because they were in federal courts, where cameras and other recording methods remain forbidden.