Mugshots Prejudicial to Defendants
I’ve just read a newspaper article on former NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak, who is accused of kidnapping in a confrontation with a fellow astronaut. A copy of her mugshot accompanied the article. I can tell you right now, just from looking at the picture, she’s guilty, guilty as sin, guilty of whatever the police want to charge her with.
In about a month, a Florida criminal court will select jurors for her trial. To find jurors who are not already prejudiced against Nowak, they’ll have to select people who don’t watch television nor read the newspaper. Just about everyone looks guilty in a mugshot.
Whenever someone has a mugshot taken, they’ve been arrested and have probably spent a few hours in jail. An arrest is extremely stressful for most people, so when they have their photograph taken, they look stressed, haggard, and guilty.
If newspapers and television news programs want to present a balanced story of an arrest, they need to find another picture of the accused and stop using pictures that will help send that person to prison.
