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Bar News - January 9, 2004 Final Phase of Hi-Tech Evidence Presentation System Completed By: Lisa Segal Merrimack County Bar Funds System A HIGH-TECH digital projection system that allows evidence to be presented electronically around Courtroom One of Merrimack County Superior Court is now complete, thanks to the fundraising efforts of the county bar. The evidence presentation equipment allows a document or other piece of physical evidence – such as a bullet – to be placed on a viewer and its image to be broadcast to thin-screen monitors located around the courtroom. The system allows counsel or a witness to notate a particular area of the exhibit using a touch-screen illustrator, and allows for zooming in on a piece of evidence. Using the videotape component of the evidence system, an attorney can play a video on all monitors, stopping action at designated points and marking up the exhibit – or having a witness do so – using the illustrator. (See the Feb. 22, 2002 issue of Bar News under Publications/ All of those features were part of the initial phase of installing the system in Merrimack County Superior Court, which was completed in 2002. The system has been in use since that time. Phase two of the project, which was recently completed, involved the following enhancements: mounting a 45-inch plasma-screen monitor on the courtroom wall so the audience can see the evidence displayed; installing computer outlets into counsels’ tables so attorneys can plug laptop computers into the system; and setting up a touch screen on the judge’s bench that allows the judge to activate or deactivate various monitors throughout the courtroom. Allowing attorneys to access the system from counsel’s table means that, using certain software, attorneys can maneuver through documents and video clips very quickly using their laptops, said Concord attorney Ronald L. Snow, of Orr & Reno, who spearheaded the Merrimack County Bar fundraising effort to purchase and install the digital evidence system. Another advantage of that feature: A disk can contain up to 17,000 pages; pages that then don’t have to be hauled into court. The judge’s touch screen allows the judge to turn on and off specific monitors as needed. According to Snow, the addition of these features marks the completion of installing the evidence system – aside from some minor adjustments that will be made. And the entire system has been paid for not through state funding, but using funds raised by the Merrimack County Bar Association. The approximately $40,000 for the system has been raised through a county bar effort spearheaded by Snow and Michael K. Brown of the NH Attorney General’s Office. In addition to the county bar, funds came from the Dudley & Gene Orr Founda tion at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the Jameson Trust, and from a number of Concord area law firms. The hi-tech evidence presentation system saves time and streamlines the trial process by making it easier to present evidence and eliminating the need for passing around paper documents submitted as evidence, according to court officials and attorneys who have used the system. "It makes referring to documents easier by eliminating the paper shuffling, and makes things moves faster," Merrimack County Superior Court Clerk William S. McGraw said shortly after the court began using the system in 2002. "It also gives everyone a chance to look at physical evidence at the same time." Snow said that in addition to speeding up trials and saving paper, the system makes it possible to present evidence more clearly to jurors. "A physical exhibit is difficult to present traditionally. You put an easel with a diagram, for example, in one place and all the jurors can’t see it. You move it, and then the witness can’t see it. This technology makes it possible for everyone to look at the exhibit simultaneously now and clearly understand what is being presented," he said. "Trial time is very expensive these days. This makes the process faster and more efficient," Snow added. Aside from the federal court, there are no other digital presentation systems in NH courts. Snow said that Julie Tobey, who installed the digital projection systems for both NH’s federal court and Merrimack County Superior, told him that New Hampshire is one of only a handful of states that has a state courtroom equipped with this kind of technology. Snow hopes that the evidence presentation system in Merrimack County will serve as a model across the state and encourage other counties to pursue equipping at least one of their Superior courtrooms with this technology. "It gives you great flexibility in terms of presenting evidence," Snow said.
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