New technology could transform the way our legal system works ... because a judge in Florida put on a virtual reality headset to get a better sense of a defendant's testimony.
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00:00I'm so fascinated by this.
00:04Explain why the video doesn't cut it for you,
00:07why you need this AI version.
00:10Well, like everyone else,
00:11when I saw the video of my client with that gun,
00:13I was like, holy smokes, this does not look good.
00:16And my client got judged nationally
00:18very harshly for this video.
00:20I realized as a trial lawyer,
00:22once I learned the whole story,
00:23that his wife had been beaten,
00:25that his son had been beaten,
00:26that the party planner,
00:27an older woman who had a chair thrown at her by the DJ,
00:31they were all attacked.
00:32My client was then woken up minutes later
00:35and told his wife to call 911,
00:37got his gun and wanted to make sure his employees
00:40weren't gonna be hurt or killed,
00:41that his place wasn't going to be demolished.
00:43He went in there to try to calm things down
00:46and tell them all to leave.
00:47So I knew I had to balance that video
00:50then show a jury or the judge
00:52exactly what happened before he had to resort to survival
00:58and to protecting himself and standing his ground
00:59by pulling out that gun.
01:01So I decided to do an animation.
01:04And then part of that animation,
01:05I asked that it'd be shown in virtual reality
01:08so that the judge and or a jury could see
01:11through my client's own eyes,
01:13exactly how he was surrounded
01:15and faced with this life-altering decision
01:17where he had to protect himself and pull that gun out.
01:20Right now, the case is before a judge.
01:23You haven't had the trial yet.
01:24The judge is gonna determine
01:26whether your client had a right to stand his ground,
01:28a right to wave the gun.
01:29And if the judge agrees with you, the case is over.
01:33So walk us through this virtual reality animation.
01:38We'll show it right now.
01:39Walk us through what you're trying to show.
01:41This one right here is through my client's eyes,
01:44what we're watching right here.
01:46This is actually what the judge looked at
01:48in those virtual reality headsets
01:50and what a jury would look at to show what my clients saw.
01:54He was heading towards the DJ
01:55to tell him to turn the music off.
01:56You have to go home.
01:57He's surrounded by a group of intoxicated wedding guests
02:02who then begin to cobblest around him and surround him.
02:06And he's still not pulling out the gun.
02:08He's just telling everyone to go home, go home.
02:09He's putting up his hand.
02:11He's saying, leave, you have to leave.
02:13And then he's grabbed and the gun has to come out.
02:15My client is older.
02:17He's smaller than the man that is in front of him.
02:19He's surrounded by a whole bunch of different people.
02:22And he walked into that place with a cane.
02:25He has to have surgery on one of his arms.
02:28And when he's grabbed, that's the last straw.
02:30He thought his life was in jeopardy.
02:32And he thought that he needed to protect himself
02:35by pulling that gun out.
02:36He never fired it.
02:37He never said he was gonna kill anyone or shoot anyone.
02:40He just kept repeating over and over,
02:42get out, get out, get out.
02:44So what do you do when the prosecutor says,
02:48wait a minute, this animation is bogus
02:52because you're doing this based on
02:54what the defendant says happened.
02:57And we dispute what the defendant says.
03:00So you can't admit that VR animation is evidence.
03:03You're describing every single trial
03:06that has ever existed in life.
03:09There's always two sides.
03:10That's why you have a prosecution and defense.
03:13And the theory is that those two clash together
03:16and the dust cloud that forms overhead,
03:18the jury looks at and determines what is the truth
03:21and what is not.
03:22And it's the same thing whether you use photographs,
03:24whether you use video or whether you use virtual reality.
03:27It's going to be based in good faith upon the evidence
03:30that one side believes supports that virtual reality
03:33or that animation.
03:34And then the other side has the opportunity to attack it,
03:37to attack the credibility of the expert,
03:39to attack the credibility of witnesses
03:41through cross-examination.
03:42That is the essence of a trial.
03:44And just because we're now at a point where we get to
03:47use evidence in a way that the jury can best understand
03:52very lengthy or complex testimonial evidence
03:55in a short period of time,
03:57both sides have an opportunity to use it.
03:59I used the animation for the first time
04:00as a prosecutor in 1992.
04:03And now as a defense attorney,
04:05I'm using virtual reality because my client is innocent
04:08and I want the best way to communicate to the judge
04:11and potentially a jury, my client's innocence.