Crime Scene

 When Westchester County got brand new courtrooms for criminal cases two years  they were supposed to be state-of-the-art. But as most of the prosecutors, judges and court officers still try to get the hang of the limited new technology, maybe they could take a lesson from their counterparts in Delaware.

Courtroom 8B at the New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington – where the man accused of killing Lindsey Bonistall is on trial - has computer screens all over the place: a large one above the witness and smaller ones for the judge, the witness stand, the prosecution table, the defense table, and, most impressively, 12 screens in the jury box. 

When a photograph or document is discussed, it pops up on every screen, visible by everyone in the courtroom. If a lawyer or the witness wants to point something out on a picture, they just have to touch the screen and a bright yellow dot, or circle or arrow materializes on all the screens. One touch of a button then clears the markings from the screens.

Then there’s a gizmo Judge Jerome Herlihy touches each time he has a sidebar conference with the lawyers. It turns on an annoying sound that rumbles through the courtroom.  The judge said it’s supposed to be ”white noise” but acknowledged that it really just sounds like static. Whatever it is, it’s effective. It makes that course I took in eavesdropping for journalists useless. You can’t hear a thing they’re saying.