NCJ Number
108241
Journal
American Journal of Trial Advocacy Volume: 10 Dated: special issue (1987) Pages: 73-79
Date Published
1987
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Elements in an attorney's closing argument are scholarship, emotion, reason, and perspective.
Abstract
Scholarship that includes a broad education in the arts and sciences enables an attorney to compose an argument that links a client's case with the morals, principles, and precepts with which the jury identifies. In addressing emotion, the closing argument aims at arousing in the juror sympathy for suffering and indignation for wrong. The use of reason in a closing argument is particularly important in a civil case which involve damages for mental suffering and consequences. In such cases, reason should be used to draw analogies that show how mental suffering is as tortuous as physical suffering. The forging of perspective in a closing argument involves persuading the jury to view the incident in a way that favors the attorney's client. Although facts and their relationships with the law are crucial elements in a jury's consideration of a case, attorney argument electrifies the facts, giving them meaning and power as the jury wrestles with the implications of the evidence and testimony presented in the trial. 2 footnotes.