MURDER!

Yes, murder. I've been watching two murder trials (and then some) down at the courthouse and it has been very interesting. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to see one trial from the very beginning to the very end, but that's okay for now. This post of observations should still be of interest to you.

1. Millennials! As with any criminal trial, evidence is important. And in order to present some of that evidence, you have to elicit this information by talking to the witness in the witness stand. Two witnesses' testimony caught my attention. One was a young Crime Scene Analyst (that was her title) who described the evidence she recovered from the parking lot where the dead guy was shot. I nearly died from exasperation when she testified that, "I collected approximately like 13 pieces of evidence." And then the second Crime Scene Analyst (almost equally as young), in describing how he collected his evidence for testing, said, "I swabbed the hands, like both hands." LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE. Listen up, people -- it either is or it isn't. Keep the "like" out of your testimony and lexicon. Yes, I realize I'm on the losing end of this complaint.

2. Domestic Violence. It was clear to me (from witness testimony) that one of the witnesses was a victim of domestic violence at the hand of the defendant. It made me question whether there is a school of thought in the field of criminal law about how to approach this scenario. One attorney did a better job than the other of refraining from asking her, "Why didn't you just leave?" Unfortunately, domestic violence doesn't work that way. Surely there is literature out there providing practice tips on how to best handle this situation, but I haven't seen it.

3. Speaking of Psychology... Three people are in a car. The person in the backseat wakes up to the sound of a gunshot. The driver, who was the boyfriend of the woman in the backseat, shot and killed the front seat passenger. According to witness testimony, after he realized the gravity of what happened, he told the girlfriend repeatedly, "Your gun, your car, your crime. Your gun, your car, your crime." Isn't that interesting? Yes, the gun belonged to the girlfriend, as did the car he was driving. But why did he say that? Was he trying to mentally distance himself from what had just happened, or did/does he really believe that's how the criminal justice system works?

4. Witness Testimony. When asking if a cell phone was "working," be more specific. I've seen two witnesses get flustered over this question/series of clarifying questions. There are various levels of what "is it working" means when it comes to cell phones -- is the screen broken? do you get text messages only? can you make and receive phone calls? does the internet work? You get my point. Don't ask that question without first clarifying what you actually mean. Oh, and apparently you can still call 911 even if your service has been disconnected? Interesting. (But don't try it unless you mean it.)

5. Witness Preparation. Finally, a funny moment! At some point in time, one of the witnesses was asked about her experience with another jurisdiction's police department. Defense counsel kept asking the witness the same questions, just stated a little differently or with graduated levels of irritation. I couldn't help but wonder where he was trying to go with this line of testimony (as was the witness, based on what I perceived to be her rising level of irritation). To the lawyer's dismay, she kept providing the same answers and the same information, and I couldn't help but think of the movie Legally Blonde. When does the judge get to intervene?!?! I soooo wanted to hear the judge say, "I believe the witness has made it clear that she was in the shower." And two more quick things: it is pretty obvious when a witness is well prepared. And body language says so much! When one of the witnesses was questioned by the prosecutor, she stood up straight, made eye contact, and provided very clear, well thought out, relevant responses. But when it was defense counsel's turn? She slouched, cocked her head to the side, and wouldn't make eye contact with him. Hmmm...

6. Technology in the Courtroom. Other than jury duty and an adoption I did a few years ago, I haven't really spent much time in a courtroom since 2004. And times have changed! Technology has made its way into the courtroom, and each of the courtrooms appears to be outfitted with the same stuff: approximately half a dozen monitors of various sizes for the jury, judge, witness stand, and counsel. There's also an overhead projector (that's what we used to call them) that is used to project the image of whatever picture or document is on the plate/device. My friend says this device is called an "Elmo." First, the irrelevant bit: I thought this thing was pretty cool. I had never seen one before! But when the prosecuting attorney slapped down the photo and tried to center it on the screen, her fingernails came into view. AND they. were. nasty. She didn't really have any fingernails to speak of, and I'm going to guess that she deals with stress by biting the shit out of her nails down to the nub until they're raw. Yuck, yuck, yuck. And now the relevant: when one of the witnesses was testifying about one of the photos being projected and where she found or collected the pieces of evidence, she touched the monitor immediately adjacent to her to show where whatever it was she was talking about was located in the photo. This wasn't immediately helpful to the rest of the courtroom since you couldn't see where she was pointing because her finger pointing didn't project onto the monitor. But for the people who matter -- i.e., the jury -- they could see it just fine because the witness stand is nearest the jury and the monitor faces them, not the rest of the courtroom. I made a mental note that making this step more interactive would be a big plus.... until I went to a different courtroom! And it was the same scenario (minus the chewed up fingernails) -- but this time, when the witness touched the screen to point something out, a little green line followed her finger! Aha! So there *is* more innovative and interactive technology available; it's just that not every attorney chooses to use it.

7. Reality. I hadn't anticipated this type of testimony from a witness. This was an aggravated assault case, and the defendant beat his girlfriend in the front seat of his car while speeding down the highway and then intentionally drove the vehicle into a concrete pillar. Everyone (3 people total) survived and the person in the backseat got out, ran away, and eventually called 911. But when the defense counsel asked the witness (the person in the backseat) why she didn't call 911 sooner, she said, "Ultimately, this is a black man." In other words, she weighed the danger she was in by being in the car with this person against the danger of calling 911 and possibly getting shot by the police when they arrived. Wow. Think about that: the witness's best friend is being assaulted. The boyfriend intentionally crashes the car at a high rate of speed. But instead of calling 911 immediately - or at the start of everything - the witness waits. Because she has considered the possible outcomes of the situation and determined that her life was LESS in danger in the presence of this violent man than in asking for help from the cops. That's a harsh reality, and something most of us don't have to think about.