Do the photographs, paintings or flags in a courthouse or jury deliberation room affect how a case is decided? That question led to the reversal of a criminal conviction in Tennessee, part of the ongoing discussion of race, racism and implicit bias that continues in the criminal justice system. And that reversal was based in
Today is Valentine’s Day. My mind turns easily to a conversation I had while standing in the aisle of a church on the east side of Cleveland. This friendly woman chatting with me was probably in her mid-50’s and had a charming mop of blonde curls. I was 26 with a not-so-charming amount of student
As best I can discern, there was no formal discipline of cognitive psychology during the time of the ancient Greeks – no polls on google, no studies with mock juries, no control groups and no brain scans. Yet Aristotle penned advice that seems core to the force of narrative and how we might capture an
Everyone nowadays seems to think they are a photographer and I’m no different. I own too much gear. I have a website. I watch innumerable YouTube videos about Photoshop. The great Dorthea Lange once said, “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” It’s absolutely true. I see all
I believe in data. I use data when teaching trial advocacy; and when there are no supporting data for a thesis (think, for example, of the claim that 80% of trials are decided at the end of the opening statements) I debunk the claim. We propagate too many myths as if they are eternal truths.
It’s finally starting to get cooler and October is upon us. I think instantly of Keats’s poem, Ode to Autumn, in which he lovingly describes how the season itself conspires with the sun to produce fruit, and imagines the season, personified, sitting patiently by a cider-press to watch “the last oozings hours by hours.” I’m
Eyewitness error, the product of inadequate perception and/or failed or altered memory, is generally the ‘stuff’ of criminal procedure courses. “The vagaries of eyewitness identification testimony” language dates back to Justice Frankfurter, and courses on wrongful conviction remind students that in the DNA exoneration cases 70% or more involved the mistaken claim of “that’s the
I’m sitting poolside at my local YMCA. My daughter has recently discovered that she’s part fish or, if you ask her, part mermaid. So, I end up poolside frequently and end up frequently watching members of my little town propel themselves past me in the lap lanes that I sit next to. It’s a good
A number of college students were tested on their ability to play miniature golf. “All were told that they would complete a brief questionnaire, perform a sports test that was based on the game of golf, and then answer questions about their performance after the test was completed.” But one extra factor was added: Half
Two weeks ago, my wife propped open the door of our (too-long-for-any-reasonable-use) screened porch. She was shuttling plants in and out every night and got tired of latching and unlatching the porch door. Well, it’s closed now—for good—because a hummingbird got into the porch. I can’t seem to forget that little bird and I thought