Courtroom Drama

Well, finally I have something to write about...

As part of my "forensic education", I attended a murder trial yesterday, where my preceptor was testifying as an expert witness. Having never been in a murder trial before (unless, of course, you count the additive year of time I've probably spent watching Law and Order), it was all a little new to me.

The other student and I sat in the gallery, while the pathologist took the stand, and we watched and listened as he took the oath, was introduced to the jury, as began to be questioned by the prosecutor. They began to go through the grisly details of what had happened to the victim, i.e., what was found during the autopsy. As they did so, it became apparent that I was sitting next to the brother of the victim (it was a pretty small gallery). He was (quite understandably), visibly struggling with this information. In fact, families from both the victim and the accused were there, and as you would expect, no one was enjoying what they were hearing.

When it was time to begin viewing the evidence photos that were taken at the autopsy, the judge gave everyone the opportunity to leave if they did not think they could handle seeing them, and actually even had the defendant go look at them in another room before they were presented as evidence. To my surprise, no one from the gallery left. Apparently everyone wanted to, or felt like they had to, see these photographs.

When the defendant returned to the room (escorted by his lawyers and the bailiff, of course), he was obviously shaken, and it looked to me like he was crying. Well, the testimony resumed, and everyone looked through the autopsy photographs on a large projector screen, while my preceptor pointed out his various findings. Again, these photos had no small effect on the people in the gallery.

After that, there was some very perfunctory cross-examination by the defense, and then the judge read some questions from the jury, and just like that, our part of the trial was over. We promptly left the courthouse, and I immediately began wishing I had gone to law school instead returned to the medical foundation.

To sum up, it was a strange experience, and not like anything else I've done in medical school so far.