Law and Order

If a picture is worth a thousand words, that’s without taking into account the heightened impact of an incriminating video. But world-class attorney Michael Schwartz —  a winner of many high-profile cases in which he has successfully defended police officers accused of disproportionate violence and even manslaughter — credits the Ultimate Judge while proving time and again that the screen isn’t always the full view

From the perspective of the defense, the video couldn’t have been worse: Off-duty, unarmed Air Force policeman Elio Carrion lies sprawled on the ground in front of a car. Hulking Deputy Sheriff Ivory Webb stands a few feet away, his gun trained on Carrion.

“Get up! Get up!” Webb orders.

Carrion responds, “Okay, I’m getting up.”

As he begins to comply, Webb suddenly shoots him three times; Carrion falls back, moaning.

“Why’d you shoot him? Why’d you shoot?” Carrion’s friend shouts in shock from the car. “That’s messed up, he was getting up!”

The year was 2007, and this was the first time a video of a cop shooting a civilian had gone viral, thanks to the ubiquity of the internet.