Linda Deutsch, AP trial writer who had front row to courtroom history, dies at 80

Linda Deutsch, a special correspondent for The Associated Press who for nearly 50 years wrote glittering first drafts of history for many of the nation’s most significant criminal and civil trials died Sunday. She was 80. For nearly 50 years, Deutsch covered almost every major trial in the U.S., beginning with the 1969 conviction of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin, Sirhan Sirhan. The case that brought her to a national television audience was the 1995 acquittal of NFL great O.J. Simpson on murder charges. Deutsch was at the center of the case dubbed “The Trial of the Century” as the pool reporter who delivered on-camera summaries of courtroom events. She also covered the trials of Charles Manson and Michael Jackson.