Robert P. Taylor's JuryDuty: reflections on a trial 

        

These were the three primary official actors in the courtroom as I had time and occasion to sketch them: the judge (leftmost inset), the assistant district attorney alone (next two insets), she and her apprentice with the defense attorney between them (wide inset), and the defense attorney alone (right three insets). It was because of activity as juror in the trial that I was only able to draw these players once or twice each. Many actions that involved one or more of each of these three, and of the court baliffs would have made marvelous subjects for drawings, but I could not divert my attention to drawing and still be an attentive juror. The sole group drawing (center inset) I did make was a very fast outline when the judge had the three attorneys "approach the bench". I filled in a bit of detail later on the computer. in line with my view of Statistical art (see link below) I managed to make multiple drawings of the two primary attorneys, though I failed to get more than one drawing of the judge.

What amazed me about this trial was that from the judge's opening overview, while the jury was still being selected, you could predict almost exactly what sort of trial it would be, even though, at that early point, neither attorney had yet said a word. From prior court experience, you could guess what the problems would be that the ADA would try to get around and what thrust the Defense Attorney would most likely take.