Jennifer L. Mnookin, Semi-Legibility and Visual Evidence: An Initial Exploration, 10 LAW, CULTURE & HUMAN. 43 (2014).
Abstract
This essay names and examines an often-used but little discussed category of legal evidence:
semi-legible visual evidence. Semi-legible visual evidence can take many forms, including blurry
photographs; low-quality films shot by police dashboard cameras, surveillance cameras, or
iphones; fingerprints; x-rays; MRIs and PET scans, to name just a few of the many types of visual
display introduced in court that are only partly decipherable to a (lay) viewer. Semi-legible
images cannot be said simply to speak for themselves; they must be made to speak, through the
exertion of effort, expertise, or both. I argue that thinking about these different kinds of visual
evidence together has the effect, not only of highlighting semi-legibility as a meaningful evidentiary
category, but also of suggesting important but often-unnoticed connections between expertise
and visual legibility. In addition, this essay offers a basic taxonomy of semi-legible visual evidence,
examining, in turn, blurry images; interpretively ambiguous images; "jigsaw" images, in which an
important piece is missing; images semi-legible to laypeople but readily decipherable by those
with relevant expertise; and images semi-legible even to experts. For each category, I describe
its parameters, focus on strategies by which it may be made more (or less) legible, and discuss
particular challenges it offers as evidence. This essay thus aims to contribute to our understanding
of the complex methods by which we produce, wield, enhance, read and interpret visual evidence
in court.
