Warning: TV tainting the criminal justice system
I have noticed during recent jury trials in DUI cases that jurors often come in with expectations of what they are going to see.
When the case is first announced as a drunk driving case, a lot of the potential jurors look bored. Then, when I introduce myself and my witnesses, including a forensic scientist, I can usually tell the CSI fans immediately. They sit a little closer to the edge of their chairs. Their posture improves. They are now listening.
During the presentation of the case, they tune most everything out. Then, when the forensic scientist takes that stand, they are all there, and they are all ears. They hear about partition ratio, alcohol metabolism, proper lab procedure, and many other mind-numbingly boring things. And they listen or so it appears.
Then they go to the jury room to deliberate and something happens. They judge the evidence, not on its own merits, but by a standard crafted by a team of television writers.
Then they make a decision about my client's life based on an impossible TV standard.
It has now become so prevalent that I have started explaining to jurors that this is not CSI. This is the real world. It often makes no difference. The jurors now consider themselves armchair forensic scientists.
This trend is not limited to scientific testimony in DUI trials. Attorney Scott Greenfield recently wrote about the same phenomena in clients and clients' relatives.
I Watch TV, So I Know: "I told her, 'No, I would not have known. Television has given you unrealistic expectations, and you want your lawyer to meet those television expectations. I could have told you what you wanted to hear, but it would have been a lie. I would not lie to you, even to make you happy. Your lawyer wouldn't lie to you either. This makes him an honest lawyer, not a bad lawyer.'"
(Via Simple Justice.)
Just because it is on a television crime or justice drama does not make it truth. It does not make it relevant to the real world.
I'm starting to think that shows about law and medicine should come with disclaimers before and after the show that the information presented is for entertainment purposes only. It is damaging to the application of justice to judge cases in the real world based on a fantasy television standard.
