Jury Nullification and Theater: Here’s How
Last week I talked about theater having a positive impact on society by encouraging Jury Nullification. This week I want to talk about how.
When people see something happening repeatedly on stage or in the movies, it has an effect.
Sometimes it helps the prosecution, other times the defense. There is even a name for it – the “Perry Mason Moment. “
Originally, the Perry Mason Moment was when the real killer confesses. This favors the prosecution. Juries tended to convict when no one made a dramatic confession in the middle of the trial – like they do on TV.
Another more recent example is what people have come to expect from forensic science because of the recent spate of CSI-type shows. An actor in a lab coat puts a tiny piece of evidence in a big machine with flashing lights and seconds later out comes the name of the person who did it. This bias favors the defense. I even wrote a short play about it called A Story Conference in Pilot Season. In my play, a criminal gang buys a movie studio in order to make television shows that makes it easier for juries to acquit members of the gang.
Are You Writing Something?
Ever since I produced The Exonerated, I have been aware of the many people who were convicted because of misidentification and coerced confessions. The general public, the potential Jury pool, still is not aware of this.
I would encourage everyone who writes a show that involves a criminal trial to include a scene where a defendant is convicted because of the use of suspect evidence.
Let us all create a new Perry Mason Moments, where a retracted confession and an eyewitness identification is NOT enough to get a conviction.
The best current example of this is the recently renewed ABC series For Life. Let us make sure it is not the ONLY example.