Can Power Point Prejudice Juries?

expriest writes "Recently, Slashdot considered the issue of e-courts which allow electronic filing of documents and court proceedings to be viewed on flat screens. Some commentators, however, are now questioning the effect of more commonplace technology on the courtroom, Power Point." Below, a bit on the reasoning behind their objections to electronic showmanship in the courtroom.

expriest continues "Theoretically, all trials feature two equally zealous advocates who each forcefully advocate for their clients. The idea is that by giving each litigant a powerful and equally persuasive advocate as their attorney, they will cancel each other out and the truth will be left in the shakeup. But what happens when one attorney uses technology to gain an unfair advantage?

Already one court, the Court of Appeals of Washington, held in State v. Robinson that the prosecution should not have been allowed to use Power Point in their closing argument, for fear that the jury would be move convinced by fancy graphics than by actual evidence.

Trial graphics companies are already a boom industry, with businesses like Trial Image making millions off of lawyers struggling to reduce their case to a picture. The question is, how far should this go? Does even simple technology like Power Point reduce trials to a contest of presentation, not a contest of facts and law?"

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