Video in Legal Decision-Making Webinar Series

This unique webinar series, “Video in Legal Decision-Making,” will facilitate conversations about the power and limitations of video evidence. The series will bring together key experts in law, media, visual communication, social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and information policy. The overarching goal is to promote science-based approaches to using video as evidence across legal settings.

From cell phones to police body cameras, today’s courts increasingly use video as evidence. Yet U.S. courts, from state and federal all the way to the Supreme Court, lack clear measures on how video can be used and presented as evidence in court in ways that reduce biases in judgment. The underlying pervasive assumption is that video evidence need not be governed by unified standards because seeing is believing—that is, what we see is the truth. This prevalent logic of naïve realism prevents court systems from incorporating safeguards to ensure rigorous visual interpretation. As a result, judges, lawyers, and jurors treat video in highly varied ways that can lead to inconsistent renderings of justice.

This webinar series is presented for FREE by the ABA Science & Technology Law Section and was organized by Sandra Ristovska as part of her Mellon/ACLS Scholars & Society Fellowship.

Webinars in the Series:
September 30, 2022 - Law Through the Camera Lens: Interpreting Video as Evidence in Court 
October 14, 2022 - What do you see in video? The hidden dimensions of visual evidence 
November 18, 2022 - Video in Open Source Investigation and Legal Advocacy 
December 2, 2022 - Weaponizing images: How concerned should we be about the rise of deepfakes?
December 9, 2022 - Putting the Brain on Trial: Cognitive Bias in Forensic Decisions
December 16, 2022 - Evidentiary and Policy Questions about Police Body Cameras

Law Through the Camera Lens: Interpreting Video as Evidence in Court

Friday, September 30, 2022 at 1:00 PM ET

Despite the common maxim that “seeing is believing,” not everyone who sees a video interprets it in the same way. In this opening session of this Fall’s webinar on Video Evidence, we will discuss how visual attention, perception, and interpretation work in court. We will highlight the latest research in law, science, and humanities on how and why people tend to overweight the information they see, underweight the information they do not see, and are overconfident about their own interpretation of what they see in a video. Considering how video is presented and used in court is critical for the pursuit of equal and fair justice in the digital age. 

Speakers:

Sandra Ristovska, Assistant Professor, Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder
Yael Granot, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Smith College 

Moderator:
Rory Fitzgerald Bledson, JD, PhD student in Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Webinar Recording

What do you see in video?  The hidden dimensions of visual evidence

Friday, October 14, 2022 at 1:00 PM ET

There is much more to visual evidence than meets the eye. In a legal world where pictorial evidence is ubiquitous, lawyers must anticipate the different meanings that different audiences can find in even ostensibly straightforward pictures – and to try to take control of those meanings.  Lawyers need to understand how video, which people intuitively believe gives them an objective, even indisputable record of litigated events, can convey both less and more than it appears to. Lawyers must be able to present their own pictures and respond to their opponents in ways that best serve their own theories of the case.  And they should recognize that beyond photography and video, video games and virtual reality will increasingly provide the sources for visual evidence and argument.  In this one-hour webinar, Christina Spiesel and Neal Feigenson, co-authors of Law on Display: The Digital Transformation of Legal Persuasion and Judgment (NYU Press, 2009) and leaders in the field of legal visual education for over 20 years, provide an engaging introduction to video and other visual literacy for practicing lawyers.

Speakers:

Christina Spiesel, Senior Research Scholar, Yale Law School
Neal Feigenson, Professor of Law, Quinnipiac University

Moderator:

Sandra Ristovska, Assistant Professor, Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Video in Open Source Investigation and Legal Advocacy

Friday, November 18, 2022 at 1:00 PM ET

Activist and bystander footage is increasingly used in criminal courts nationally and internationally. From open source investigations of Syria’s violations of international humanitarian and human rights law to visual advocacy during the Chauvin trial in the U.S., the increasing use of activist and bystander footage raises questions about standards and best practices in video preservation, authentication, large scale analysis, and court display. Join us to learn more about this topic from three pioneers in open source investigation and visual legal advocacy.

Speakers:

Alex Deaconson, Senior Visual Consultant, DK Global
Jeff Deutch, Director of Operations and Research, Mnemonic, Co-Founder of Syrian Archive
Alexa Koenig, Executive Director, Human Rights Center, University of California at Berkeley

Moderator:

Sandra Ristovska, Assistant Professor, Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Webinar Recording

Weaponizing images: How concerned should we be about the rise of deepfakes?

Friday, December 2, 2022 at 1:00 PM ET

The global explosion of video—thanks to smartphones, social media platforms, and messaging apps—has helped propel questions about human rights to the forefront of public debate. Yet there is another side of video worthy of attention: the rapid diffusion of deepfakes that are now used by various actors to create synthetic media for a wide array of both creative and harmful purposes like entertainment, satire, sexual exploitation, and political manipulation. Join us as we explore the cultural, technological, and legal considerations involved when thinking about the latest iteration of image weaponization. 

Speakers:

Sam Gregory, Director of Programs, Strategy & Innovation, WITNESS
Riana Pfefferkorn, Research Scholar, Stanford Internet Observatory
Andrew Keane Woods, Milton O. Riepe Professor of Law & Distinguished Legal Scholar, James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona

Moderator:

Sandra Braman, John Paul Abbott Professor of Liberal Arts, Department of Communication and Journalism, Texas A & M University

Webinar Recording

Putting the Brain on Trial: Cognitive Bias in Forensic Decisions

Friday, December 9, 2022 at 11:30 AM ET

Forensic science relies heavily on human judgment, which is subject to cognitive biases that can produce costly errors. This presentation will review (a) sources of bias in forensic decisions, (b) what practitioners should (but often don't) do to prevent bias, and (c) how attorneys can identify and expose unreliable forensic opinions.

Speakers:

Jeff Kukucka, Associate Professor, Psychology, Towson University

Moderator:

Sandra Ristovska, Assistant Professor, Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Webinar Recording

Evidentiary and Policy Questions about Police Body Cameras

Friday, December 16, 2022 at 1:00 PM ET

How can police-worn body camera video and bystander recordings help or hurt a case? In this session, we highlight some of the latest research on body cameras’ role in the pursuit of justice and accountability. Drawing on research from different jurisdictions, including interviews with police officers, the panelists will discuss pertinent evidentiary and policy questions about proof, public disclosure, privacy, and police regulation.

Speakers:

Mary Fan, Jack R. MacDonald Endowed Chair & Professor of Law, University of Washington
Bryce C. Newell, Assistant Professor of Media Law and Policy, University of Oregon
Rebecca Wexler, Assistant Professor of Law, Faculty Co-Director of Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, University of California, Berkeley

Moderator:

Sandra Ristovska, Assistant Professor, Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Webinar Recording