The Psychology and the Politics of Nightclub Surveillance Video
Last week, pro football player Aaron Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder for the killing of his friend Odin Lloyd after a disagreement at a nightclub in June 2013. Surveillance video footage played an important role in the trial, for both the prosecution and the defense.
In order to demonstrate Hernandez’s volatile personality, the prosecution called a witness who testified about meeting Hernandez at the club the same night of his altercation with Lloyd. When she didn’t want to dance with Hernandez, she said, he became “agitated” and “aggressive.” Hernandez’s defense attorney then tried to undermine that testimony with video footage from inside the club that showed the witness dancing with Hernandez, seemingly willingly.
Surveillance video can indict or defend, however, depending on how it’s spun; prosecutors also used several hours of video footage of Hernandez’s house to try to demonstrate that he was acting calmly, normally, and without remorse,...