I was hired by KSTP-TV to do some courtroom sketching today in St. Paul. Quick background: In 1989 eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a masked gunman and has never been seen since. Whatever became of Jacob remains a mystery. Since then Wetterling has become something of a poster child for abducted children and his parents have become high-profile advocates for children's safety. Everyone Minnesotan who...
My apologies for the horrible pun in the title of this post. In addition to my normal illustration work, every once in a while I get requests from the local media to do a little courtroom sketching. My courtroom sketches have been purchased for broadcast by MSNBC, ESPN, 20/20, Good Morning America, the NFL Network, and the NNS. I’ve worked on court cases...
Today was the final day of the trail. Both sides made their closing arguments and fate of Amy Senser is now in the hands of a jury. I was making my final trek down to the camera crew by lunch. I knew this would be a short day so I drew extra fast. Good Morning America has been including my sketches...
Today the prosecution wrapped up their case against Amy Senser in her hit-and-run trial. All along Mrs. Senser has insisted she thought she had struck a construction barrel with her car instead of a human being. The state is attempting to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she must have known she had hit someone instead of something. To do that...
Today two of the three key witnesses were teenagers. Because they were minors the judge instructed all of courtroom sketch artists to not sketch them. At all. We asked if we could just draw outlines or even genderless mannequin-like "ghost" shapes and even that request was denied. The judge was very nice about it but he wasn't taking any chances....
Today was Day 2 of the Amy Senser hit-and-run trial, and once again I was hired by local station KSTP-5 to do some courtroom sketches. Several witnesses took the stand so I was drawing fast and furious. Courtroom sketching is always a balancing act. Do I focus on quantity or quality? A couple of really good sketches or several hurried...
