ABSTRACT
Evidence in law must never be self-evident, and, where it is, there are rules about that too. The laws of evidence work on representations to determine what they mean and how they might be used. Proving truth in law ascribing probative value to evidence requires the fact-finder to allow evidence to have a 'rational affect', to subject it to rational reasoning and to eliminate irrational processes or values. This chapter focuses on visual evidence, gruesome images and visual identification. Visual representations have always had an evidentiary role. The laws of evidence have long sought to take an open and accommodating approach to new technologies, for their capacity to give us new ways of discovering facts or resolving disputes. Law's awkward embrace of visual evidence became starkly apparent in the 1991 incident in which Rodney King, a Los Angeles motorist, was beaten by police officers.
