Courtroom illustrators capture rarely seen side of U.S. justice system

Elizabeth Williams was the only courtroom illustrator left in the room. In fact, she was one of the last members of the media lingering 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 swindled $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 quickly flipped to a new page 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. Now, it will be preserved in the Thomas V. Girardi Collection of Courtroom Illustration Drawings at the Library of Congress, which recently acquired 95 original drawings by Williams, Aggie Kenny and Bill Robles, who illustrated some of the highest-profile trials over the past four decades.

With cameras barred from federal courthouses, illustrators have acted as the eyes of America for decades, drawing some of the most famed and sensational cases that have shaped and altered the U.S. justice system, collection curator Sara Duke said.

“I don’t think many Americans think of how they get images of defendants,” said Duke, who works 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 largely stems from the 1934 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 Congress eventually prohibited cameras from federal courts.

The popularity of courtroom illustration as a profession paralleled the rise of television news 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 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 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 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 — allowed in some place — 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) 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.”