'The CSI effect' on real juries

Ed Treleven writes that

The script for this phenomenon, written by prosecutors across the country and repeated by news media in recent months, is simple and compelling: Having watched hour after hour of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and other legal dramas, jurors nationwide are demanding forensic evidence and acquitting defendants when prosecutors don't deliver. ...

David Schultz, associate dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School, said that in the 1980s, during the height of the popularity of "L.A. Law," a drama about the travails about a Los Angeles law firm, juries started asking for instant transcripts of trial testimony, just like the ones provided to juries on the show.

But in Wisconsin, trial transcripts are never provided to jurors, who are expected to rely on their own recollections of the evidence. Because of the requests, Schultz said Wisconsin's Criminal Jury Instruction Committee wrote a new instruction, specifically informing juries that they would not get a transcript. The rule is still read to Wisconsin jurors.

Wisconsin State Journal June 21, 2005

(via WisBlawg)