FORT LAUDERDALE: A Broward County, Florida, jury could also be amongst the first in the nation to expertise a brand new dimension in expert testimony, if a former prosecutor has his manner.

Ken Padowitz, the defence lawyer representing a Coconut Creek man accused of making an attempt to kill his neighbour by operating over him with a Dodge Viper, needs to place jurors in the driver’s seat by way of the use of the newest in expertise — virtual reality goggles that promise to offer them a have a look at the alleged crime from the perspective of the defendant.

Padowitz filed a movement final week asking Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra to permit the jury that may determine his consumer’s case to make use of virtual reality goggles to immerse themselves in the testimony of an expert witness in accident reconstruction.

It hasn’t been carried out in Broward earlier than. Padowitz is pretty sure it hasn’t been carried out anyplace in the Unites States. It wouldn’t be the first time Padowitz was on the forefront of introducing pc animation in the courtroom.

Back in 1992, Padowitz was a prosecutor in Broward County, seeking to put a defendant behind bars for manslaughter in a hit-and-run case. He satisfied a decide to permit jurors to view a two-dimensional pc animation on a tv display screen, a call that was later upheld by an appeals court docket and paved the manner for the use of pc animation in numerous prison trials since.

Now Padowitz is hoping to pave the manner for 3D animation and virtual reality. A listening to on his movement is scheduled for Friday. The Broward State Attorney’s Office has not filed a response to the movement.

“An expert’s opinion is admissible to present to a jury,” Padowitz mentioned. “We’re just taking it one step further. They are going to be able to look as if they are right there, able to look around, to see what the defendant saw.”

Benjamin Siegel, 47, faces a most of 30 years in jail if convicted of first-degree tried homicide. Padowitz employed an expert to testify that Siegel didn’t deliberately strike the sufferer together with his automobile. The virtual reality presentation, designed by the Pompano Beach graphics firm Eyewitness Animations, will illustrate the expert’s findings.

“It’s the expert’s testimony that’s admissible,” mentioned Padowitz, “and the illustration is an extension of the expert’s testimony. There was no intent to commit a murder.”

Jack Suchocki, president of Eyewitness Animations, mentioned the virtual reality headsets would put the juror between the two entrance seats of the car.

“The flexibility and ease of use are dramatic,” Suchocki mentioned.

The juror’s area of imaginative and prescient can be 360°, that means anybody may flip round and get a have a look at an illustration of the automobile’s again seat, although that might be an inappropriate use of the expertise, he mentioned.

“One of the benefits of this is we can actually record what each juror is looking at,” Suchocki mentioned. That would guarantee every juror is specializing in the proof, not the expertise, he mentioned.

Eyewitness Animations was the similar firm that produced the pc animation in the 1992 case that launched the expertise to South Florida courts. Suchocki mentioned he foresees virtual reality headsets being utilized by juries in dozens of different instances, together with automobile accidents and airplane crashes.

Padowitz is getting ready the same movement to make use of VR headsets in a capturing case. That movement has not been filed.

Putting jurors in a goggles forces a tradeoff that impacts each prosecutors and defence legal professionals — if the expertise works as promised, legal professionals received’t be capable of see the preliminary reactions of their viewers. You can’t see the eyes of a juror sporting a headset.

“The reality is, you want to see the jury and you want to see their face during the trial,” Padowitz mentioned. “We’re really watching the video with them and using that, after the jury sees it, to make our arguments.”

If the decide permits it. – South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service