Washtenaw: Courts

Donald Shelton, chief judge of the Washtenaw County Trial Court, is featured in an NPR report on whether the “CSI Effect” is influencing jurors. The concept refers to the CSI franchise of TV shows, which dramatize high-tech forensic investigations – the fear is that jurors expect to see that kind of technology deployed in real-life cases. According to the NPR report, Shelton was skeptical of this perceived influence – so he and his colleagues conducted a survey of more than 2,000 jurors to see where they got their information about the criminal justice system. “Blaming CSI or any television show is just too simplistic,” Shelton told NPR. “It’s much bigger than that.” [Source]