Seeing Is Believing: How Televised Depictions of the American Court System Impact Jurors' Perceptions of the Law

• Publication year: 2018
• Author: By Chandelic Marie Jackson

SEEING IS BELIEVING: HOW TELEVISED DEPICTIONS OF THE AMERICAN COURT SYSTEM IMPACT JURORS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE LAW

By Chandelic Marie Jackson^*

Introduction

Today, the American Court System is concerned that popular legal-themed television shows broadcasting on various networks are impacting jurors' expectations within the courtroom and causing a great division between laypersons and the legal system.¹ Current legal-themed television shows depict police officers, detectives, and lawyers as overzealous, cunning, unethical individuals who will do whatever it takes to get the justice they feel is desired; not traits promoted by the Criminal Justice and American Court Systems. The Criminal Justice and American Court Systems seek to provide justice and a fair trial with an impartial jury to the accused, and any deviation from that caused by television's effects is often referred to as the "CSI Effect."² Because juries decide whether evidence presented during a trial supports an accusation and meets the burden of proof necessary to warrant a criminal conviction, the American Court system relies on juries to make these decisions in fair and consistent ways without prejudice. Attorneys and judges worry that juries' decisions are biased because of television's effects. This is a great concern because a jury's decision can terminate a person's life and liberty and bestow or deny justice to a victim. With a phenomenon like the "CSI Effect" existing, it should be a matter of great concern for the public. The evolution of legal-themed television shows has produced an exceedingly undesirable impact on jurors, judges, and officers of the court. Judges are tasked with reinforcing and educating jurors on proper courtroom customs to dispel falsehoods shown in legal-themed television shows, while officers of the court must spend a great deal of their time explaining their roles as attorneys and uncovering biases and other falsehoods created by legal-minded television shows. The accused are at the mercy of jurors and must trust that the small educational presentations from judges and officers of the court are sufficient to dispel harmful biases and falsities the jurors may carry, sometimes unknowingly.

I. The History A. The Development of the American Court System—Criminal Proceedings

In the American Court System, the Judicial Process guarantees that every person receives a fair trial before a judge and a jury of one's peers.³ In criminal proceedings, additional protections are afforded to the accused in the fourth, fifth and sixth amendments which provide, "a guarantee that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without the due process of law"; protection against being tried for the same crime twice ("double jeopardy"); the right to a speedy trial by an impartial jury; the right to cross-examine witnesses and to call witnesses to support their case; the right to avoid self-incrimination; and protection from excessive bail, excessive fines and cruel and unusual punishments.⁴ Without courts and the judicial process, it would be challenging to ensure that justice is served. Courts provide a space that allows decisions to be made based on laws and evidence presented before it. Courts attempt to ensure that the accused or parties that disagree are provided with an unbiased, safe zone.⁵ While this can be a very lengthy and tedious process involving warrants, arrests, arraignments, and trials among other things, it is not always depicted as such in the media causing great havoc within the courtroom.

B. The Development of the American Television

In the early 20th Century, the television set was invented.⁶ The first televisions sets were initially available to only the privileged few and sold in high-end department stores.⁷ Although relatively few people had television sets in their homes, the public was eager to observe the displays of televisions where they could see and hear about events that took place hundreds of miles away.⁸

During the so-called Golden Age of Television, mass-production of televisions led to substantially lower costs and increased ownership since World War

II.⁹ Harmoniously, with the increased demands for television sets grew the development of more television programming.¹⁰ By the1960's, television was the dominant mass medium, overshadowing the earlier popular household radio.¹¹ While radio usage dropped to less than two hours, television viewing climbed to more than five hours per day and continued to grow annually.¹² Television programming at that time offered greater genre diversity not seen again until the development of cable television.¹³ Programming included westerns, game shows, historical dramas, animated series and a collection of sitcoms and dramas featuring police, detectives and lawyers: all making Nielsen's top thirty during this decade.¹⁴ Arguably, by the end of television's first decade it had a greater influence on American culture than schools and churches, which had been dominant forces.¹⁵

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C. The Merger of Law and Television

Two of some the earliest representations of the merger of law and a medium of communication for entertainment purposes are: a book entitled, The Strange Schemes of Randolph Manson, and a film entitled, D.W. Griffith's Falsely Accused!¹⁶ The Strange Schemes of Randolph Manson, originally published in 1896, is a book that portrays a mysterious Randolph Manson, who although crooked is represented as a legal genius.¹⁷ Manson represents a killer and does everything it takes to help his client escape justice.¹⁸ While Manson tends to follow the black letter law he betrays its core principles.¹⁹ The silent film D.W. Griffith's Falsely Accused! was released in 1908 and tells the story of an old wealthy inventor who has perfected a motion picture camera.²⁰ The inventor has a daughter whose hand is sought in marriage by a young wealthy man and his archenemy.²¹ The archenemy thinks he can enhance the wealth of the inventor but will not do so without the inventor's daughter's hand in marriage.²² After being rejected by the daughter, the archenemy turns to the father who denies her hand. Upset, the archenemy kills the father.²³ After meeting with her young suitor, the daughter discovers her father's dead body and is accused of killing him.²⁴ A trial is set and all evidence goes against the daughter, nevertheless, her persistent lover miraculously develops and projects footage from the inventor's camera that clears the young woman's name and exposed the archenemy for what he had done.²⁵ These early courtroom depictions helped to birth the dramatized court productions that Americans have come to love today.

Because of the popularity and fascination with dramatized court proceedings in the early twentieth century, there began the development of television programming showing crime related productions in new and exciting ways. Some of the earlier television productions include The Verdict is Yours, an American courtroom drama that aired on CBS Daytime; American Trial By Jury, a courtroom drama aired on NBC; and A Day in Court, a courtroom drama aired on ABC.²⁶ Some of the early shows like The Verdict is Yours featured an unscripted courtroom drama that cast actors as litigants for cases tried by real lawyers and judges before a jury consisting of studio-audience members.²⁷ Eventually, actors replaced real attorneys and judges and one of the most popular of its kind was Perry Mason. Perry Mason was an attorney who specialized in defending seemingly indefensible cases; often relying on his outstanding dramatic courtroom skills, he tricked or trapped the real perpetrators into unwittingly admitting their guilt.²⁸ Perry Mason was Hollywood's first weekly one-hour series filmed for television and broadcast on CBS from September 21, 1957 to May 22, 1966.²⁹ It became one of television's longest-running and most successful legal series. In 1960, a few years before its cancellation, Perry Mason received a Silver Gavel Award³⁰ presented by the American Bar Association.³¹

In the latter part of the twentieth century, solo practitioner series such as Perry Mason, Petrocelli and Matlock were substituted by complex drama showcases presenting the judicial process in an even more glamorous light. Shows like Law and Order, CSI: Criminal Scene Investigation, NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Suits and Scandal to name a few took over the media by storm. With a few exceptions, shows like Law and Order and CSI go through an entire judicial process within an hour. Each episode is divided into two parts, the first half focusing on the arrest and investigation and the second half focusing on a trial and verdict. Audiences follow the judicial process from start to finish and are often shown the criminal justice and judicial systems in an altered manner. Detectives routinely harass and physically abuse suspects and push the limits of legality with their applications of warrants, interrogations and investigative practices. Attorneys are shown using unethical techniques of suppressing evidence, lying to judges, and bending the truth to convict. The compelling storylines show romanticized, complex relationships between detectives, attorneys, and the accused. Forensic science, a field that encompasses a broad range of scientific disciplines including: toxicology, pathology, and biology, each with their own set of technologies and practices, is depicted as being 100% reliable and accurate. Forensic labs process evidence, get results, and get leads almost instantaneously.³² With a few keystrokes on super computers, scientists and detectives can match fingerprints, find suspects, get full biographies, and watch footage in seemingly miraculous ways. To sum it up, these shows are thought to have created expectations that the criminal justice system has the most advanced technology. And, they teach the idea that the judicial system has barely any ethics or morals.

In addition to popular crime dramas...