Remembering the sound of the shackles

Yesterday, the state Supreme Court upheld the death penalty conviction of Roger Hoan Brady for killing Manhattan Beach police Officer Martin Ganz in 1993.

I will never forget that day in 1998 when we filled the Torrance courtroom to await the jury's verdict on whether Brady would face the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The room was packed with Ganz's family members, a few members of the media, and a lot of police officers. I was in a seat toward the back. Uniformed officers from several South Bay departments filled the seats, but many stood in the back.

Judge Stephen O'Neil allowed Daily Breeze photographer Brad Graverson to stand behind him to shoot the proceeding.

When it was time to bring Brady in from lockup, the room went silent. It was like a movie. All you could hear was the shackles clanging as he walked to his chair. Totally "dead man walking."

I wrote:

"As the hearing began, the courtroom fell silent as Brady slowly walked through a hallway from his holding cell. Shackles around his legs rattled eerily with each step.

Once seated, Brady put his right hand to his face and made an obscene gesture toward a news photographer and at Judge Stephen O'Neil."

The editors had a decision that day. Do we run a photo with a guy flipping off the camera. They chose to do so because it showed so much. Instead of a big shot, however, they ran it smaller on the front page.

All these years later, let's run it larger.