In chapter four “The Law of Desire”, Sherwin discusses notorious cases in our country’s legal history, and the “nation’s effort in the course of historic notorious trials to find safe haven in collective fantasies that fend off…the urgencies of deep cultural and social conflict”. Sherwin points out three cases, John Brown’s case in 1859, Henry Ward Beecher’s case in 1875, and Harry Thaw’s case in 1907, as three of our nations’ notorious cases in which cultural anxieties were associated with each one. In each situation, the cases “infuse[d] the particular facts of a specific legal controversy with larger meanings”, which led to the nation to think about the trials on a symbolic level, the meaning in the events ever occurring at all, rather than the facts at hand and the person on trial. In the case of John Brown, even though he was convicted and hung, the “legal meaning of the trial and factual inconsistencies” of Brown’s life were easily forgotten because of the character of a romantic hero that he took on throughout the trial. In the end, in him being hung, he became a sacrifice for his cause, rather than a convicted criminal.
In chapter five “The Postmodern Challenge”, Sherwin examines the “antidocumentary” The Thin Blue Line, and how it affected the case of the murder of Robert Wood. In the beginning of the chapter Sherwin notes, “People prefer stories neat. Recognizable characters, familiar motives, and recurring scenarios of conflict and resolution,” and these are the best ways to tell a story so it can be easily understood. But, what tends to happen when stories are neat is that things are sometimes left out. Stories are inherently messy, but by leaving out details we can present stories in a more organized fashion. After Adams was charged with the murder of Robert Wood and sentenced to death by the state of Texas, Errol Morris made The Thin Blue Line. In this, there are two conflicting storylines, which result in a movie that completely contradicts the entire case. It even led to a reexamination of the case. Sherwin tells us that “the rationalist view…has taught us to discard rhetoric as mere window dressing, that which obscures reality”, proving that the obscurity of The Thin Blue Line led viewers to rationalize and make a decision about the case on their own, instead of paying attention to the facts, because we prefer closure instead of “the discomfort of unending mystery”. In the end, the docudrama came to stand in place of reality.
In chapter six, Sherwin begins with a rule of thumb that laid out the theme for the chapter, “whatever the visual mass media touch bears the mark of reality/fiction confusion”. As law stories are some of the most popular for T.V viewers, there is no denying that law is intentionally or not intentionally affected by visual mass media. But, what I think stood out as the worst effect of visual mass media on law, is the bias it can create. Sherwin cites examples of lawyers using the media to rally public opinion in order to pressure trial participants, and said that judges can sometimes “be susceptible” to this kind of pressure. Another problem Sherwin cites is the “prototypical” cop show. As we have learned with Law and Order, the crimes that are shown on T.V, and are therefore a part of the “public consciousness”, are almost always dramatized versions of extremely rare and violent cases. In turn viewers feel “the need to punish” criminals. So, this idea seeps into real life when these people become jurors. Now, “public shaming is on the rise”, and it is up to the individuals to decipher reality from fiction in law.
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