This past spring I was hired by ABC News out of New York to do courtroom sketching for a big trial they were covering here in Minneapolis. It's a fascinating story: In 1980 a young man named Ming Sen Shiue kidnapped his former teacher, Mary Stauffer, and her 8-year-old daughter Beth. A 6-year-old boy, Jason Wilkman, witnessed the kidnapping so Shiue...
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Every once in a while I am hired by a local Minneapolis TV station to do courtroom sketches. Minnesota has a strict law forbidding cameras from all courtrooms so when big dramatic trials go down I often get a phone call.
I enjoy courtroom sketching but it has its challenges. Here's some of the balls a courtroom artist needs to juggle:
Recently I was called in by Minneapolis station KSTP-5 to sketch for another murder trial. Ronald Reed, a former Black Panther, was finally convicted of killing a Minneapolis police officer, a crime he committed 30 years ago. I'm never really satisfied with my courtroom sketches because I have to bang them out so fast (these were all done in one day)....
I've been called in twice this week to do courtroom sketching for a local murder trial. Normally I enjoy this kind of work, but for this trial I've spent the majority of my time staring at an empty courtroom while the judge and lawyers debate behind closed doors. That's left me with a lot of time to sketch the backgrounds,...
Recently a local TV station hired me as a courtroom sketch artist for a school shooting trial (full story here). Today was the last day of the trial. Family members testified about how the murders had affected them, and then the judge gave his sentence. It was gut wrenching to watch. Courtroom sketching is a fascinating experience. I never know how...
