Are 3D Crime Reenactment Animations In The Court Room Fair to The Accused?

Not long ago, I saw an absolutely fabulous Hollywood Movie; Lincoln. Okay so, I know that there have been more books, documentaries, and movies made on this gentleman than just about anyone in the last 200 years, but seriously, this was a fantastic movie, and seemed very realistic. Of course, even with all of the research time put into that project the behind the scenes view, could not possibly have been that authentic, it was a view of history in hindsight with no one living today to verify any of it. Still, it seemed real, and so people will believe it and adopt it as fact.

This is an interesting concept to me, mostly because my name is Lance and people used to call me Lance-a-lot as a kid, but guess what Lancelot never actually existed at all, it was a made up story. Still most people believe it is a true story. Now then, I'd like to take this a step further and discuss an old quote; "it's amazing what you can get people to believe," and that goes for whole societies, children in schools, or even juries. Okay so, let's talk.

Government Executive News had an interesting piece recently on Nov. 30, 2010 Davenport Iowa PD Use 3D Scanner for Crime Scenes," and the article noted that; "Photographs of crime scenes may become a thing of the past," and "high tech 3D laser scanner will be used," and all that "visual evidence that can be revisited later -- and even be used in court rooms to illustrate a crime scene to jurors."

Now then, if juries get used to seeing animations of 3D crime enactments, and eventually they get to watch full-on holographic demonstrations in the court room, it might cement into the minds of the jurors that they actually saw the crime themselves, almost as if a secondary witness of history, just as those folks who watch that wonderful Hollywood Movie; Lincoln, or my friends who think Lancelot actually existed once upon a time in a land far-far-away.

Documentaries, stories, explanations, and such can be all too convincing when we watch them on TV, never mind a complete 3D real-time reenactment. Will we not pollute the minds of the juries with such entertainment in the courtrooms? How many innocent men might we convict in the process? Who is to say that the 3D renderings were not doctored? Will judges allow these in the courtrooms as evidence? Will defendant lawyers find ways to dismiss these renderings based on changes made to the CADCAM software at each step of the way and challenge each change and line of code?

More questions than answers but this is a really intriguing new crime fighting tool no doubt, I just wonder if it will be used responsibly, and if we will use to convict the bad guys and exactly how convincing it will become in the future in the eyes of the juries. I bet psychologists might warn us about this path moving forward. I stand in amazement of the technology, and render no verdict yet, I'd sure like to find out, and I think we all may in the future. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Police Tech. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/