Trial by Video : Police, Lethal Force, and the Struggle for Accountability

Investigates the significance of video evidence in criminal trials of police officers charged for on-duty shooting incidents

Lawyers describe video evidence as a "game changer" for achieving criminal accountability in police-involved shootings. Despite a proliferation of videos of police-involved violence that attract considerable public attention and condemnation, trials and convictions remain rare. Once promised as a mechanism for delivering police oversight and accountability, video has yet to resolve complaints and achieve consensus about the lawfulness of use-of-force incidents, especially lethal force disproportionately applied to Black and Indigenous people.

Trial by Video examines eight criminal cases between 2015 and 2020 of police officers charged for on-duty shootings in the United States and Canada, to examine what video brings, and fails to bring, to criminal trials. Video is widely recognized as critical evidence but is highly contested throughout the trials. Whatever the virtues of video, these cases often turn on adversarial arguments about the motive of the accused officer and the "reasonableness" of force.

Watson, Nave, and Lynch interviewed lawyers who worked on these cases, and reviewed court documents, news stories, official reports, and leading case law. While video evidence is thought to "speak for itself," the book shows how video evidence is mobilized through litigation to shape courtroom arguments. In the courtroom, video is played, replayed, technically reconstructed, and subjected to expert commentary, but it is also used as an interrogative tool to contest or corroborate the statements of witnesses, including the accused officer. Ultimately, Trial by Video shows how lawyers, experts, and the accused officers themselves can reappropriate video evidence in order to avoid accountability.