The Defense Is Wrong
SHORT STORIES
The Defense Is Wrong
Scrolling through Netflix today, I came across a movie I loved when I was younger: My Cousin Vinny.
And yes, I had a huge crush on Mona Lisa Vito.
It wasn’t only Marisa Tomei’s beauty or the character’s personality.
She knew cars.
Really knew cars.
There is a scene near the end that I had almost forgotten.
Mona Lisa doesn’t even want to testify.
Vinny has to convince her to take the stand, and when he shows her a photograph of the tire marks, she initially looks at it almost with disdain.
It’s just a photograph.
Then Vinny explains what the prosecution believes those marks prove.
She looks again.
And something changes.
She isn’t seeing tire marks anymore.
She is seeing what would have had to happen to produce them.
Vinny asks whether the defense has a case.
She answers:
“No. The defense is wrong.”
And then she explains why.
Everyone had access to the same photograph.
The prosecution saw it.
The defense saw it.
The jury saw it.
Mona Lisa saw behind it.
Maybe that is one of the differences between looking and seeing.
Looking gives us the evidence in front of us.
Seeing makes us wonder:
What had to be true for this evidence to exist?