March 2020

6 entertainment/westerner
march 13, 2020
From the Screen to the Courtroom
HOW ARE JURIES AND COURTROOM VERDICTS AFFECTED BY CRIME DOCUMENTARIES?
BY BLAZEJ EZLAKOWSKI
reporter
Whether it’s the long-running “Law and Order”
scripted series or crime-solving documentaries
such as “Making a Murderer” on Netflix, true
crime shows are redefining innocence and guilt in
our justice system.
Having a lasting impact on the world, the
Netflix documentary “Who Killed Malcolm X’’
explored the assassination of the civil rights leader
and the three controversial convictions that came
out of it. Thanks to the documentary, the assassination
case may be reopened, and one individual
convicted of the murder may be exonerated.
This has led many to wonder, what impact
do crime shows and documentaries have on our
world—for the better or worse? Do fictional
shows like ‘Mindhunter’ and ‘CSI’ have any semblance
to real crime proceedings?
“I think that these shows about crime have a
positive influence overall. I saw an episode of ‘Hawaii
Five-0’ about human trafficking, and at the
end of the episode, the actors raised
awareness about the issue.
So at
Get Your Irish On!
BY HANA DEMPSEY AND AILEEN
O’CONNOR
entertainment editor and asst. entertainment
editor
Honoring the death of the patron saint of Ireland,
St. Patrick’s Day is a worldwide celebration
of Irish culture and lifestyle. Though the holiday is
celebrated across the world, it’s especially important
to people in Ireland.
“It’s a big day of celebration, family getting together,”
said John O’Hara, who grew up in Ireland
and is now a Maine West electrician. “We don’t
celebrate Thanksgiving. Christmas is a big holiday,
and St. Patrick’s day is right up there.”
In celebration, each major town in Ireland has
its own festival with a parade similar to the St.
Patrick’s Day parade in Chicago. “Shops would be
primarily closed down, but of course the pubs are
open. The parade would last pretty much all day,
similar to Chicago’s but the atmosphere is a little
different,” O’Hara said.
As for Irish families who no longer live in Ireland,
St. Patrick’s Day is spent embracing their
the least, these shows are good for raising public
awareness of some issues,” junior Lethrese Rosete
said. “You can also learn some things from these
shows. For example, on ‘Magnum P.I.,’ I learned
about positive and negative reinforcement from
psychology,” Rosette continued.
Many crime shows are generating interest
because they provide a new perspective and not
just the side of the investigators. “For one, they
can shift the public opinion of law enforcement,
but also of convicts. ‘Criminal Minds’ showed
how much law enforcement does, and how much
emotional stress they go through. People don’t
usually take that into account,” senior Katy Anderson
said. “But some of these shows also humanize
the criminals; you’ll see all the things that
led up to someone’s crimes, their background and
motives, and it makes them more relatable.”
As well as having an impact on the public at
large, these crime shows can have an impact on
the justice system and the way cases are handled.
“Those shows do influence jurors, and when lawyers
choose jurors for a criminal case, they take
whether they watch these shows into account, because
those jurors could be more likely to convict
or acquit, based on the type of show they watch,”
crime science teacher Chris Quidayan
said. “Some
of these
KIRA PALMER
native culture. “I’m really proud of my heritage
and where my ancestors came from. Celebrating
[St. Patrick’s Day] brings me back to my roots and
makes me really appreciate it more,” senior Claudia
Morrison said.
There are so many ways to celebrate, whether
you’re in Ireland or anywhere else in the world.
“I’ve never been to Ireland, but I’m 98% Irish.
As my mom would say, ‘Every day is St. Patrick’s
Day,’ so to celebrate for dinner we eat corned beef
and Irish soda bread,” junior Maggie Fitzpatrick
said.
Even those who aren’t Irish at all can appreciate
St. Patrick’s Day, particularly in Chicago. “The
Irish helped, in many ways, building the structures
of Chicago and many metropolitan areas in
the United States. Everyone likes to have an Irish
connection, and there’s so many Irish here. On
St. Patrick’s day, everyone wants to come out and
celebrate the Irish for what they have done in a
good community of people,” O’Hara said. About
200,000 citizens of Chicago—and tens of thousands
more in the suburbs—have Irish ancestors,
shows have made it harder to convict criminals,
because the jury may want a ‘smoking gun’ [a
foolproof piece of evidence of guilt] like there often
is on some crime shows, but that ‘smoking
gun’ rarely exists in real life,” Quidayan said.
Lawyers understand how these shows change
the expectations of viewers, and they manipulate
those expectations when it comes to arguing in
front of a jury. “We learned in class of one case,
where there was a mountain of evidence that the
suspect murdered the victim, but the defense argued
some convoluted alternative possibility, like
what could happen in a show, and the guy was
acquitted,” Quidayan said.
Yet some shows don’t even have to be at all
related to crime to influence real legal proceedings.
One extraordinary example of this is the
story of Juan Catalan, who was exonerated of
a murder charge, thanks to his appearance in
background footage of the comedy series “Curb
Your Enthusiasm.” The show was filming during
an L.A Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium at the
same time as the alleged murder. Attending the
game that day, Catalan’s coincidental appearance
walking through the background of one of the
scenes proved that Catalan could not have been at
the murder at the time it happened. “Curb Your
Enthusiasm” managed to save an innocent
man from life in prison, and the story is
retold in the Netflix documentary “Long
Shot.”
In many ways, the media has opened
up new outlets for evidence and re-invented
the way crimes are solved. It has created an
unexpectedly large following for true crime
stories, and will likely continue to shape the
justice system for years to come.
ST. PATRICK’S DAY CELEBRATES IRISH CULTURE AND
ALLOWS THOSE OF IRISH DECENT TO APPRECIATE
THEIR HERITAGE
according to the most recent census data, with
their families dating back to the big waves of Irish
immigrants who came to the Chicago area in the
1830s-1850s. Like the Germans and Italians, the
Irish were integral to the rebuilding of Chicago
after the Great Chicago Fire.
While there’s no doubt that the St. Patrick’s
Day celebration spreads beyond Ireland’s borders,
the reason it is celebrated here in Chicago may
be different than the reason it is celebrated in Ireland.
“There is a more religious aspect [in Ireland]
because it’s about a saint, and it’s more similar
to Christmas in the sense that it’s religious and
celebratory,” Morrison said. While in America, “a
lot of people use St. Patrick’s Day as an excuse to
drink,” Morrison said.
However, Irish culture welcomes everyone to
the celebration. “Our culture is very happy and
warm hearted so it’s the more the merrier. They
might not celebrate it for the same reasons, but it’s
still just a fun time to celebrate it,” Morrison said.