WHEN COURTROOM POWERPOINTS ARE TOO POWERFUL

Visuals are essential in today’s trials.  Many jurors are visual learners; many have reduced attention spans from years of watching television or online video; and many jurors ‘expect’ a show as part of a modern trial. And Powerpoint and other visuals can be potent evidence, crystalizing complex legal concepts and hitting powerful emotional chords.  This

“He Fit The Profile” Is Problematic Trial Proof

We profile people all the time – not necessarily in the pernicious way that is condemned for stops and searches, but in using a person’s character or behavioral patterns as a proxy to estimate how they would conduct themselves in a particular situation.  It is a form of “fast” thinking, an intuitive response that leads

RACE, JURORS AND EYEWITNESSES

Identifying individuals from one’s own ‘group’ is easier than identifying someone from outside the ‘group.’  If you were to stop me and say “but that’s obvious, it’s always easier to identify people you already know than identifying a stranger” I’d have to respond that “you mis-read what I wrote.  ‘Group’ does not mean ‘friends’ or

Bias, Dogs, and “I’m Sorry”

  We are often told that “justice is color blind.  But research continues to expose the fallacy of this contention, particularly when it comes to subconscious bias.  And where must we worry about bias as affecting judgment?  Consider these two statements: 1. “A [drug detection] dog’s… reliability is established for the purpose of admitting the

Reducing Judicial Crime-Severity Bias In Motion Decision-making

It will come as no surprise that judges are not automatons, oblivious to emotion or extraneous information when making decisions.  To the contrary, the literature is  filled with examples, such as the increase in sentences (particularly for black youth) if the judge’s football team lost the previous weekend.   https://www.thecut.com/2016/09/judges-give-harsh-sentences-when-their-football-team-loses.html So one question is whether judges

THE INNOCENCE PROJECT TURNS 25 – AND CHANGED THE WORLD OF EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION

On Friday, November 17 the Cardozo School of Law presented a conference titled “25 Years of the Innocence Project: Impact on Law, Policy and the Courts.”  This author discussed eyewitness testimony and the IP’s impact on reducing the risk of erroneous identification convictions.  The below summarize the views that were offered.     The phenomenon

EVIDENCE LAW – A MATHEMATICAL APPROACH TO LEGAL ANALYSIS

  Lawyers ‘get’ scales.  The scales of justice.  The scales that are tipped ever-so-slightly when the preponderance burden of proof is explained.  Indeed, that quantitative weighing is core to a civil case adjudication, and when mishandled may cause error and reversal: the district court judge erred when he interrupted counsel’s argument and informed the jury

BAD LAWYERING: A FEW “BAD APPLES” OR A SYSTEMS FAILURE?

Two recent reports confirmed what experience has shown.  Bad lawyering in criminal cases is to be blamed not merely on individual attorneys – the proverbial “few bad apples” –  but on a systemic tolerance of underperforming. This was brought home, first, when a federal judge in Maine concluded that a criminal conviction would not be