What do P Diddy, Donald Trump, and Martha Stewart all have in common?
Christine Cornell.
She's a courtroom artist who's captured all of them at their trials.
I’ve been covering trials for the last 1,000 years, which is about 1975.
I did Woody Allen and Mia Farrow.
I’ve drawn Mick Jagger a couple of times.
I’ve drawn Mike Tyson.
I did just come off the Cosby trial recently, but I drew him probably 20 years ago.
We live in an age where people’s phones have 4K cameras
and every dips*** on a snowboard has a GoPro attached to their head,
so why do we still see old-school pastel sketches of so many trials?
Courtroom illustrations are part of an old tradition
that dates back to the infancy of the United States.
But to figure out why we’re still relying on them,
we need to turn to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 53,
which is exactly as exciting as it sounds.
It’s a law that basically says you’re not allowed to broadcast
or take photographs of criminal proceedings inside federal courtrooms.
The ban on cameras was adopted in 1946,
but its origin is often linked to the sensational coverage of the 1935 trial of
Bruno Hauptmann for the murder of the Lindbergh baby.
Most state courts have had a similar ban on cameras as well,
which is why news outlets relied heavily on artists
like Christine to document the trials.
Courtroom photography has been a hotly debated issue for a long time.
There are many who believe having cameras in all courtrooms
will make for a more transparent judicial process.
On the other hand, some people point to the O.J. Simpson trial
as a prime example of why it might not be a good idea:
A lengthy, complicated judicial process was turned into a primetime spectacle.
It’s an unfair burden, I think to put on a defendant.
Because they are presumed innocent, for starts,
and the camera is a brutal exposure, and the artists are a filter.
There’s just something that’s a little more human.
It’s a little bit softer.
It mitigates a little bit on behalf of the person.
One great thing about drawing as opposed to cameras in the court
is you can shrink the space.
You can put people in juxtaposition to each other that dramatizes
or allows the drama to come out.
I asked Christine to do a drawing to show me her process.
I requested one of me in a prison jumpsuit getting tased by guards,
but she suggested we do it sitting instead.
When I look very hard at someone that I’m about to draw,
then I look at my page,
their face is actually glowing on the page.
And it’s kind of like when you watch film develop,
except it’s the reverse.
I watch that image fade.
Studying anatomy is very useful because I have to do
an awful lot of recreating of things that I
just saw happen in front of me.
But then they just happened, and now they’re not there anymore.
And you have to be able to do that from your knowledge.
If you think too much about what your feelings are
about somebody, it’s going to interfere with your drawing.
But what about all the awful people you’ve had to draw over the years?
I think you need to have a huge dollop of compassion,
because that's the only way you're going to capture soul on the page.
And that way, you’re going to get your most true likenesses.
You wanna make those portraits speak to you on the page.
When people cry, you gotta get it.
It’s, like, part of the court artist’s contract,
you know, do not miss the tears.
Unfortunately for Christine, I’m from Minnesota, so I’m
unable to express my emotions.
Drawing this fast is just, it’s totally insane.
Sometimes you can churn out as many as six drawings a day;
I’ve churned out as many as eight drawings a day.
You’re always taking it all in as it comes, but there’s always certain things that catch
your eye
and that you find particularly appealing.
Like when Martin Shkreli was in court,
he had a bunch of gestures where he would take his hand
and just sort of go like this,
and it was sort of fun because you could see the
white around this part of his eye, you know.
When Bernie Madoff was sentenced, he was taken, remanded directly, and they cuffed his hands
behind his back
and led him through a door, and of course I had to draw that.
Christine’s captured a ton of memorable moments.
But the laws have changed her profession over the years,
and a number of bills have been introduced to allow cameras inside federal and supreme
courts.
Once upon a time, there were so many artists they had to give us the whole front of a courtroom,
you know, front row on both sides.
And now there’s just a few of us.
They allowed cameras on an experimental basis in New York State Court,
and that sort of eviscerated the business,
that took away the bread and butter, because state court was where we did most of our work.
The business has changed, but there’s still, you know,
there’s still crime.