NOTE: Although the article does not state so, ExhibitOne designed and integrated the evidence presentation system for this courtrooms.

Technology arrives in local courtrooms
By Amanda Smith-Teutsch
Herald Staff Writer

Rather than scrawling on chalkboards and holding up enlargements of and photographs and documents, Mercer County lawyers now have a high-tech way of showing juries their evidence.

Court Administrator Peter Morin unveiled the new, $156,000 evidence-display system Monday.

The system combines computers, television monitors, video systems and Internet technology to make presenting witnesses and evidence easier, Morin said. The new system was based on similar equipment used in federal Bankruptcy Court in Youngstown and in other courts around the country, he said.

Mercer County now own two mobile carts loaded with the equipment to be shared by the four courtrooms, Morin said. Each cart has a combination DVD/videocassette recorder, a computer, a special camera projector and a photo printer, among other equipment.

To display evidence, a lawyer can put any object -- photograph, X-ray, document, car key, even guns -- on the projector screen.

The projector transmits an image to several rotating flat-screen monitors installed in jury boxes, at the bench, in front of the court crier and at lawyers' tables. The images are also sent to 50-inch plasma screens for audience viewing.

"The best part about it is, tax money was not used to buy the system," Morin said. He said money for the new equipment came entirely from fines and fees paid by drunken driving defendants.

The equipment allows lawyers to videoconference with clients or witnesses, rather than transport them long distances.

"We will be able to use it with any other facility, such as Warren State Hospital" for the mentally ill, Morin said. "That way, the sheriff's deputies won't have to make a two-hour drive to transport a defendant for a 15-minute hearing."

The system will also be connected with the new Mercer County Jail once it is built, Morin said, saving on inmate transportation time for short hearings.

Other features include the ability to print pictures of evidence immediately and to "draw" on the computer display with arrows and lines to point out key spots.

Former Mercer County Judge Thomas Frampton, who has returned to private law practice, was on hand to see the system.

"I would be able to zoom in on a specific spot in an X-ray and have my witnesses point something out," he said. "Or, if I'm asking a witness to read a letter, he or she could underline the parts being read."

The new system, he said, should help speed case flow and eliminate delays.

Lawyers will also be able to plug their personal laptop computers into the system. That way, they can use computer slide presentations and other tools, Morin said.