Unfair (75 page)

For example, a city could invest in trauma kits:
Tammy Kastre and David Kleinman, “Providing Trauma Care,”
Police
, January 24, 2013,
http://www.policemag.com/​channel/patrol/articles/​2013/01/trauma-care-the-first​-five-minutes.aspx
; Katie Emmets, “Local Police Use Blood-Clotting Agent to Save Lives,”
Alligator
, January 30, 2009,
http://www.alligator.org/​news/local/article​_7a650a65-dfa9-​58c5-aef5-384499ff0ed5.html
.

Or we could have all hospitals:
Donald G. McNeil, Jr., “A Cheap Drug Is Found to Save Bleeding Victims,”
New York Times
, March 20, 2012,
http://www.nytimes.​com/​2012/03/21/health/​tranexamic-acid-cheap-drug-​is-found-to-staunch-bleeding.html
.

Researchers recently found that:
Richard Wright et al., “Less Cash, Less Crime: Evidence from the Electronic Benefit Transfer Program” (working paper no. 19996, NBER, March 2014),
http://www.nber.org/​papers/w19996
; Cass R. Sunstein, “Fighting Crime by Going
Cashless,”
BloombergView
, April 29, 2014,
http://www.bloombergview.com/​articles/2014-04​-29/fighting-​crime-by-going-cashless
.

The federal government had begun requiring:
Looking at the state of Missouri, the authors surmised that taking about $55.9 million of cash out of circulation each month produced a 9.8 percent reduction in crime. Wright et al., “Less Cash,” 25.

Less cash in circulation meant:
Sunstein, “Fighting Crime by Going Cashless.”

So why not create an:
Allison Orr Larsen, “Confronting Supreme Court Fact Finding,”
Virginia Law Review
98 (2012): 1310.

Indeed, when a defendant:
West's Encyclopedia of American Law
, s.v. “Insanity Defense,” accessed May 22, 2014,
http://legal-dictionary​.thefreedictionary.​com/​Insanity+Defense
.

Responding to the scene of:
Similarly, during an interrogation, a detective could depart from protocol established to diminish the likelihood of false confessions and lie to the suspect about evidence found at the scene of the crime, but that officer would do so knowing that he would later have to articulate his reasons and knowing that if such reasons were deemed insufficient, it would seriously undermine the validity of any confession that was obtained.

All too often people end up:
Dan Simon,
In Doubt: The Psychology of the Criminal Justice Process
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), 83.

We need to disrupt automatic behavior:
The good news is that this is unlikely to require much of a shift in practice. Police officers already follow numerous rules of conduct. And while there may be some resistance based on the notion that protocols are for “low level” functionaries and that judges and lawyers cannot possibly be expected to follow them, these legal actors already operate based on established scripts, from the rules of procedure in the courtroom to the
way they write their briefs or opinions constrained by statutory law and precedent. The difference is simply that the new protocols will be based in empirical research, not untested intuitions. As the science becomes more and more settled, some of the defaults could be changed into absolute prohibitions.

If jurors and judges can be swayed:
In the future, a juror might put on a pair of “trial” glasses that linked up to a virtual environment. In this environment, every person could be represented by a neutral avatar with the same facial features, blended skin tone, ambiguous gender, and other physical characteristics. When judges, attorneys, witnesses, and jurors needed to speak, their voices could be modulated to create uniformity.

Introducing virtual trials would also be:
Courtroom violence, especially against courtroom staff, judges, and lawyers, has been on the rise. Caroline Cournoyer, “Courtroom Violence on the Rise,”
Governing the States and Localities
, January 19, 2012,
http://www.governing​.com/​blogs/view​/courtroom-violence-on-the-rise.html
.

All virtual trials could be recorded:
In addition, another significant benefit of establishing carefully controlled uniformity would be that it would allow for much more effective scientific research in the future. Psychologists and neuroscientists always struggle to simulate a real trial environment, but with the use of virtual courtrooms, that problem might be largely eliminated. Every experiment on juror perceptions or witness testimony or attorney behavior could employ the same virtual environment used in real cases. Indeed, by recording virtual trials, study participants could be presented with the exact same experience as actual judges and jurors in real cases.

Today, they usually get only:
The law varies by state as to whether courts permit videorecording devices in the courtroom. Digital Media Law Project, “Recording Public Meetings and
Court Hearings,” accessed May 23, 2014,
http://www.dmlp.org/​legal-guide/recording-public​-meetings-and-court​-hearings
; Digital Medial Law Project, “State Law: Recording,” accessed May 23, 2014,
http://www.dmlp.org/​legal-guide/​state-law-recording
.

That way, if a lawyer's objection:
This wouldn't prevent the judge from being influenced, of course, but it would be a clear step in the right direction.

Indeed, when Pennsylvania officials elected to:
Christopher Danzig, “Video Arraignments Save Money and Make Judges Feel Safer,”
Above the Law
, June 17, 2011,
http://abovethelaw.com/​2011/06/video-​arraignments-save-money-and-make-judges-feel-safer/
; Valerie Werse, “The Confrontation Clause in Video Conferencing,”
Rutgers Computer and Technology Law Journal
(October 11, 2012): 2,
http://www.rctlj.org/​2012/10/​the-confrontation-clause​-in-video-conferencing/
.

A soldier sitting at a computer:
Mark Bowden, “The Killing Machines,”
The Atlantic
, August 14, 2013,
http://www.theatlantic.​com/​magazine/archive/2013/09/the​-killing-machines-how-​to-think-about-​drones/309434/
; Michael Hastings, “The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret,”
Rolling Stone
, April 16, 2012,
http://www.rollingstone​.com/​politics/​news/the-rise-of-the-​killer-drones-how-america​-goes-to-war-in-secret-20120416
.

On a smaller scale, surgeons working:
Joseph L. Flatley, “World's First Remote Heart Surgery Completed in Leicester, UK,”
Engadget
, May 4, 2010,
http://www.engadget.com/​2010/05​/04/worlds-first​-remote-heart-surgery​-completed-in-leicester-uk/
; Stanford Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, “What Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Children's Heart Center Is Known For,” accessed May 22, 2014,
http://www.lpch.org/​clinicalSpecialtiesServices/​COE/ChildrensHeartCenter​/ctSurgery/knownFor.html
.
Videoconferencing is also increasingly common in more routine interactions, from chatting with friends and family using Skype or Apple FaceTime to conducting meetings with Microsoft NetMeeting to teaching online classes. In one recent survey, roughly half of MBA student job applicants and two out of three employers had experience using video conferencing technology. Greg J. Sears et al., “A Comparative Assessment of Videoconferencing and Face-to-Fact Employment Interviews,”
Management Decision
51 (2013): 1738. It is also worth noting that it is already common at trials for jurors to be presented with animations or virtual-reality reenactments of key events. Brian Bornstein and Edie Greene, “Jury Decision Making: Implications For and From Psychology,”
Current Directions in Psychological Science
20 (2011): 66.

So, we must ask ourselves:
The legal obstacles—like the Sixth Amendment's guarantee that the accused “shall enjoy the right…to be confronted with the witnesses against him”—are more significant, but they are not insurmountable. U.S. Const. amend. VI. Courts have already carved out exceptions to the right to face-to-face confrontation, including allowing closed circuit video testimony by children in cases involving abuse. Werse, “The Confrontation Clause in Video Conferencing,” 4. And the meaning of the Amendment may very well continue to evolve to permit a virtual courtroom as virtual interactions become more common in all fields.

The traditional justifications:
Werse, “The Confrontation Clause in Video Conferencing,” 12.

If our current legal rules prevent us:
One important consideration in deciding whether increased virtual interactions make sense in the criminal justice system is whether they might introduce new biases or bring other unforeseen costs. There is some evidence, for example, that interviews using video conferencing result in lower ratings for job candidates and more negative
assessments of interviewers. Sears et al., “A Comparative Assessment of Videoconferencing and Face-to-Fact Employment Interviews,” 1733. That said, it seems likely that such effects will significantly dissipate or vanish completely with improved technology and increased virtual interactions, as lagging Internet connections, poorly placed cameras, and stress brought on by unfamiliarity with the format are not likely to be future problems. Sears et al., “A Comparative Assessment of Videoconferencing and Face-to-Fact Employment Interviews.”

Plus, with virtual technology:
As with the virtual courtroom, virtual interrogations and interviews could all be recorded, which would allow researchers to identify more readily the best techniques for eliciting complete and uncorrupted testimonial evidence.

Some virtual spaces are already:
Simon,
In Doubt
, 86. For example, the PC_Eyewitness computer program has been developed to facilitate more accurate eyewitness identifications. Otto H. MacLin, Christian A. Meissner, and Laura A. Zimmerman, “PC_Eyewitntess: A Computerized Framework for the Administration and Practical Application of Research in Eyewitness Psychology,”
Behavior Research Methods
37 (2005): 324–34; Otto H. MacLin, Laura A. Zimmerman, and Roy S. Malpass, “PC_Eyewitness and the Sequential Superiority Effect: Computer-Based Lineup Administration,”
Law and Human Behavior
29 (2005): 303–21.

Lineups created, chosen, and administered:
Simon,
In Doubt
, 86; Maclin, Meissner, and Zimmerman, “PC_Eyewitness”; MacLin, Zimmerman, and Malpass, “PC_Eyewitness and the Sequential Superiority Effect.”

We need to stop viewing:
John H. Ellard et al., “Just World Processes in Demonizing,” in
The Justice Motive in Everyday Life
, eds., Michael Ross and Dale T. Miller (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 350–62; Roy F. Baumeister,
Evil: Inside Human Cruelty and Violence
(New York: W. H. Freeman, 1997); John M. Darley, “Social Organization for the
Production of Evil,”
Psychological Inquiry
3 (1992): 199–218; Leonard Berkowitz, “Evil Is More than Banal: Situationism and the Concept of Evil,”
Personality and Social Psychology Review
3 (1999): 246–53.

Some urban police forces have already:
John Buntin, “What Does It Take to Stop Crips and Bloods from Killing Each Other,”
New York Times
, July 10, 2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/​2013/07/14/​magazine/what-does-it​-take-to-stop-crips-and-bloods-from-killing​-each-other.html?pagewanted=all
.

One recent example comes from:
Buntin, “What Does It Take to Stop Crips and Bloods from Killing Each Other.”

Hoping to reverse the tide:
Buntin, “What Does It Take to Stop Crips and Bloods from Killing Each Other.”

The two groups began coming together:
Buntin, “What Does It Take to Stop Crips and Bloods from Killing Each Other.”

The new level of understanding:
Buntin, “What Does It Take to Stop Crips and Bloods from Killing Each Other.”

In 2013, in fact, Los Angeles:
“L.A. Now Live: First Homicides of 2014 and L.A.'s Crime Statistics,”
L.A. Times
, January 6, 2014,
http://www.latimes​.com/​local/lanow/​la-me-ln-la-now-live-​crime-stats-20140106-dto,0,5233748.story#axzz2tmpi2j2R
. The crime statistics suggest that Los Angeles residents are now as safe as New Yorkers. Buntin, “What Does It Take to Stop Crips and Bloods from Killing Each Other.”

There are many factors at work:
Buntin, “What Does It Take to Stop Crips and Bloods from Killing Each Other.”

And we ought to rethink certain:
The New York Police Department, for example, prohibits personnel from residing in the same precinct to which they are assigned. Brian Lehrer, “Following Up: Should Cops Live in the Same Neighborhoods they Police?,”
WNYC
, April 18, 2013,
http://www.wnyc.org/​story/287583​-following-beat​-cops-and-community-policing/
.

The resulting interrogations tend to:
It is noteworthy that the first of the Reid technique's “nine steps of interrogation” is “confrontation of the suspect with a statement that he is considered to be the person who committed the offense.” Fred E. Inbau et al.,
Criminal Interrogation and Confessions
(Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011), 188.

So, what if we recast:
Simon,
In Doubt
, 141; Saul M. Kassin et al., “Police-Induced Confessions: Risk Factors and Recommendations,”
Law and Human Behavior
34 (2019): 27–28.