Staging a trial means controlling what juries see of a client’s emotions

Evidence

Schlichtmann had prevailed upon his clients, the Woburn families, not to attend the trial. This had been a tactical consideration. The entire trial, both phases, would surely last several months and if, sitting in the gallery, they should laugh or smile at the wrong time, or look bored, or come only sporadically—well, he’d asked them, think what impressions the jurors might form. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 1700

Categorization

• SEED: An essay on the theater of litigation: who is allowed in the courtroom and what their faces are permitted to reveal, from the Salem witch trials to televised proceedings.
• XREF: Parallels the etiquette literature in World of Strangers on managing one’s public face and body before strangers who are reading you. — connects to: Trial preparation treats jurors as an audience to be persuaded through staged presentation — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 850; Trials resolve disputes over facts, over law, or over both — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1275; Jurors decide cases based on personal sympathy rather than facts — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1451 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Jury verdicts turn on sympathy for the accused more than case facts #complicates (0.95) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 886
• Trials resolve disputes over facts, over law, or over both #expands (0.92) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1275
• Clients must feel represented or they withhold facts and act destructively #complicates (0.92)
• Jurors decide cases based on personal sympathy rather than facts #complicates (0.90) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1451
• Emotions are treated as external forces that diminish legal culpability #complicates (0.88) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 363
• Capital trials are deliberately structured to let jurors avoid moral responsibility #complicates (0.87)
• Jurors displace guilt onto the legal system’s decisions #complicates (0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2001
• Effective trial advocacy rests on narrative persuasion rather than legal argument alone #complicates (0.83) — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 774
• Judges decide law while juries decide facts and apply it #complicates (0.82) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1409