Manufacturing Evidence For Trial: The Prejudicial Implications Of Videotaped Crime Scene Reenactments.
INTRODUCTION
When the Mitchell brothers partied, they partied hard. The brothers, Artie and Jim, were renowned for their pornographic film and theater empire.(1) Although the Mitchells were notorious for their carousing together, Jim had become increasingly distraught over his brother's drug and alcohol habit, worried that it was threatening their extensive business dealings.(2) Thus, when porn-king Artic Mitchell's bullet-ridden body was found in the bedroom of his California home, it came as little surprise to those who knew them that Artie's older brother Jim was arrested near Artie's home while trying to draw a concealed rifle on the responding officer.(3)
The events that actually transpired inside the Mitchell house that night remain a mystery. Jim claimed that the killing was accidental(4) and that he could not recall any of the events surrounding the shooting.(5) Armed with circumstantial evidence, ballistics reports, and the opinions of the Mitchells' friends, prosecutors set out to...