July 17, 2008

Life Meets TV

Colin Miller, of EvidenceProfBlog, has this interesting blogpost about Kathy Reichs as an expert witness, in the notorious Ohio nun killer case, State v. Robinson. Dr. Reichs is the author of the Temperance Brennan mystery stories and the inspiration for the Bones television series.

Reminds me of another recent life meets tv case: the one in which the prosecution's expert witness mentioned a Law & Order episode that Andrea Yates watched. The problem: no such episode. Eventually, Mrs. Yates's conviction was overturned. Along with the now-documented "CSI" effect, can we doubt that tv's dramatic riffs affect jurors?

No comments: