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An illustration of Bernard Madoff going to jail following a plea on March 12, 2009. The image is featured in the Thomas V. Girardi Collection of Courtroom Illustration Drawings at the Library of Congress.(Photo: (Photo: Elizabeth Williams, The Library of Congress))
Elizabeth Williams was the only courtroom illustrator left in the room. In fact, she<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was one of the last members of the media lingering<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at Bernie Madoff’s hearing in New York City on March 12, 2009.
She was busily drawing an image of one of America’s most infamous white-collared criminals, a Ponzi scheme financier who allegedly<span style="color: Red;">*</span>swindled<span style="color: Red;">*</span>$65 billion from clients through his Wall Street business.
“I remember the judge said ‘Don’t even sit, the presumption of innocence is over’ and within two seconds they jumped on him and put the handcuffs on him,” Williams said.
Two federal marshals immediately marched Madoff, his head down and hands cuffed behind his back, toward a barred door. Williams<span style="color: Red;">*</span>quickly flipped to a new page<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and started working on a picture that “everyone in America wanted to see,” she said.
Williams' drawing captured the last moment of a free Madoff.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Now, it will be preserved in the Thomas V. Girardi Collection of Courtroom Illustration Drawings<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at the Library of Congress, which recently acquired 95 original drawings by Williams, Aggie Kenny and Bill Robles, who<span style="color: Red;">*</span>illustrated some of the highest-profile<span style="color: Red;">*</span>trials over the past four decades.
With cameras<span style="color: Red;">*</span>barred from federal courthouses, illustrators have acted as the eyes of America for decades,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>drawing some of the most famed and sensational cases that have shaped and altered the U.S. justice system,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>collection curator Sara Duke<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said.
“I don’t think many Americans think of how they get images of defendants,” said Duke, who works<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division. “Defendants go in and out of courtrooms with their lawyers, trying to hide themselves with a jacket or sweatshirt hood. But, courtroom illustrations, in some ways, present a more dignified view of defendants — or they are able to capture humanizing aspects for everyone to see.”
The elimination of cameras from courtrooms across the country<span style="color: Red;">*</span>largely stems<span style="color: Red;">*</span>from the 1934<span style="color: Red;">*</span>trial of Bruno Hauptmann, who was convicted for kidnapping and murdering Charles Lindbergh’s infant son. Large, powdered flashes filled the courtroom daily during the highly publicized case. The constant distraction led the American Bar Association to call for a ban, and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Congress eventually prohibited<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cameras from federal courts.
The popularity of courtroom illustration as a profession paralleled the rise of television news<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as the Civil Rights movement and death of President John F. Kennedy expanded evening broadcasts in the 1960s, Williams said.
When Jack Ruby went to trial for Kennedy’s assassination, Howard Brodie, a news artist, approached a friend and CBS executive to ask how the network would cover the courtroom proceedings without cameras. Brodie was hired, jumpstarting broadcast networks<span style="color: Red;">*</span>use of courtroom illustrators, Duke said.
The illustrations let Americans inside the courtrooms during the evening broadcasts, with three-second pans of the drawings depicting defendants, lawyers and the judge.
“The pictures add a humanizing element – even though many of the defendants were some of the worst criminals in U.S. history,” Duke said. “The Fort Hood shooter, he did something horrific and yet in the courtroom, he is this pallid, ill person and the drawing humanized him. It doesn’t stop him from doing something horrific but it captures him as somewhat of a weak, ill man.”
Kenny, who began her career in 1971, has covered everything from U.S. Supreme Court cases to Penn State University coach Jerry Sandusky’s child-molestation trial. With<span style="color: Red;">*</span>45 years in the courtroom under her belt, Kenny said she’s seen the impact of budget cuts and cameras being allowed in some state courthouses.
“There was a very large contingence of artists – usually seven, eight or nine in a courtroom,” said Kenny, who won<span style="color: Red;">*</span>an Emmy for her work. “And now, because things have changed so radically, there are usually at most three artists in the courtroom.”
As more reporters come to courthouses armed with social media, laptops and video cameras<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— allowed in some place<span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>it's clear professional courtroom illustrators are a dying breed. Williams is just happy a piece of this storied American history will now be safe.
“(The collection is)<span style="color: Red;">*</span>really about seeing and studying the American justice system for what it is,” Williams said. “I can now rest easy because the illustrations are in a box and safe, and in a good place.”
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