MADELEINE BRAND, host:
Here in California, some people were disappointed when the Supreme Court ruled that video from the gay marriage trial in San Francisco could not be uploaded.
But Scott Shafer from member station KQED in San Francisco met one person for whom the courts decision means job security.
SCOTT SHAFER: Vicki Behringer is an artist and a journalist. You know, when you watch a television story of a trial and see drawings or paintings of the witnesses and the judge, well, Behringer is painting those each day in the federal trial challenging Proposition 8, Californias ban on gay marriage.
Ms. VICKI BEHRINGER (Journalist; Courtroom Artist): So far this morning, I have a drawing of the first witness, which would be Professor Gregory Herrick(ph).
SHAFER: Each day during breaks in the trial, Behringer walks into the media room at the federal courthouse in San Francisco with her latest 8 by 10 water color paintings and tapes them onto a white wall. The courtroom artist has one of the best seats in the house.
For the Prop 8 trial, Behringer is working in the jury box, just a few feet from all the main characters in the drama. This trial has no jury. So, she has plenty of room to work.
Ms. BEHRINGER: First of all, I do some pencil sketching. Then I ink the picture with the ink lines and then I do watercolor. And now I put them up on the wall and my clients photograph them.
SHAFER: Once her paintings are taped off in the media room, TV cameras crowd around them to shoot the images for the evening news. Behringer earned a degree in design 30 years ago and she wanted to become a fashion illustrator. But fate or what she calls a series of magical circumstances, led her to become a courtroom artist in 1990. She says it was a perfect fit for an impatient artist like her.
Ms. BEHRINGER: The turnaround time on the art is really fast. So, I have to have it done rapidly, which means once its done, its done and I cant go back and fix it.
SHAFER: Since Behringer has been in the courtroom, her list of assignments includes some of the most notorious and publicized trials of the past two decades.
Ms. BEHRINGER: The Unabomber, Richard Allen Davis, Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, Barry Bonds...
SHAFER: These trials can be drone on for weeks, even months. But there are moments of drama in each trial that stick with Behringer years after the verdict is rendered.
Ms. BEHRINGER: Laci Petersons mom got on the stand and she was just wailing at Scott Peterson, and the whole courtroom was crying. And I mean I saw I literally saw teardrops from the reporter next to me falling on his notepads.
SHAFER: How do you convey that?
Ms. BEHRINGER: I put lots of red around her and her face was just very, a very extreme emotion on her face and her hands were up. She was very upset.
SHAFER: That courtroom drama in Behringers paintings isnt lost on Dean Johnson. Hes a lawyer and legal analyst for the ABC affiliate in San Francisco.
Mr. DEAN JOHNSON (Legal Analyst, ABC7 News San Francisco): She captures the emotional and relational aspects of whats going on in the courtroom. Its more impressionistic, and it gives you a sense of how the various participants figure emotionally and how the roles operate within the courtroom.
SHAFER: Her paintings generally depict all the characters in one scene: the judge, the questioning attorney and the witness. I asked if she ever hears from any of the people she paints. Do they like her work or complain about it?
Ms. BEHRINGER: I get people joking around with me like that, not so much the judges, but a lot of the attorneys will say something funny, like, hey, you made me thinner than I am or, you know, hey, you gave me more hair.
SHAFER: So, after studying all the characters in this historic trial, how does Vicki Behringer think its going to turn out?
Ms. BEHRINGER: I have no idea what the judge is going to do. I never do. I never know what the jury is going to do, and I never know what the judge is going to do.
SHAFER: But if that decision comes down in the courtroom, she will have a watercolor painting to capture it.
For NPR News, Im Scott Shafer in San Francisco.