1. THE GREAT GATSBY TRIAL
Who is guilty?

2. COURT DATE: APRIL 5-9, 2019
The defendant has been charged with carrying the primary fault in the tragedies that have occurred over the past three months in New York, among them Myrtle Wilson’s domestic abuse and death, Gatsby’s death, Wilson’s death, Daisy’s run from the law and Nick’s emotional distress.
It is your task to prove through a well-crafted argument that the defendant is/is not responsible for most, if not all, of the tragedies listed above.
You will be given your assignment (prosecution or defense) at the end of class.

3. SUSPECTS

4. Paired Teams
The State of New York v. George Wilson Estefany, Mason, Jaden, Annie, Yamir v. Joel, Kaya, Deven, Kiana The State of New York v. James Gatz Jennifer, Alexander, Darianna, Kent, Ariana v. Rudolf, Eduardo, Kameron, Victoria, Lindsey

5. Paired Teams
The State of New York v. Daisy Buchanan Mariana, Kelvin, Veronica, Rodrigo, Chris v. Colette, Gabe, Christian, Xiomara, Juan The State of New York v. Tom Buchanan Kim, Eric, Ayrianna, Mario, Charley v. Micah, Adriel, Alex, Analiyah, Oscar

6. PRE-TRIAL PREPARATION
An effective opening statement using rhetorical devices
The opening statement sets the scene and summarizes the evidence to be presented; consider it the introduction to the trial
A clear thesis identifying who is guilty and why
Set up witnesses and their testimony
Plan cross-examination of opposition’s witnesses
Powerful closing statement using rhetorical devices
A minimum of two forms of evidence (one must be a visual)
A convincing call to action, encouraging the jury to rule in your favor

7. Court Accepted Evidence
Posters with labeled exhibits (crime scene/accident diagrams, receipts, certificates, etc.)
These will be graded for neatness as well as creativity. Do not throw something together last minute.
Laws
Support from the novel
Support from outside sources (philosophers, scientists, etc.)
Reenactments

8. General Presentation Order
Prosecuting lawyer opening statement
Defense lawyer opening statement
Prosecution calls accused to the stand and questions them
Defense cross-examines the accused
Each lawyer will then call a witness (or witnesses)
Opposing lawyer will have the opportunity to cross-examine the witness.
Prosecution gives closing argument
Defense gives closing argument
Jury gives verdict

9. ROLES/ RESPONSIBILITES

10. Court Rules
ALL TESTIMONY and information MUST COME DIRECTLY FROM THE BOOK. You are not allowed to offer your opinion. If it wasn’t clearly stated in the book, you can’t use it in the trial.
When creating questions, you must determine who would be able to answer the question…in other words, that witness MUST have been in the scene, heard, or said something. If he/she wasn’t there, you can’t ask that person about it.

11. Responsibilities Lead Lawyer and Assistant Lawyers Advisory Council
Develops and presents opening and closing statements
In charge of the trial
Presents all evidence
Questions the witnesses
Advisory Council
Preps the witness(es)
Prepares all questions for the lawyers to ask the opposition’s witness
Predicts and helps prepare the witness for their cross-examination
This is a non-speaking role
Witness(es)
Develop questions for their lawyer to ask them
Work with Advisory Council to prepare for cross-examination

12. Open Ended Questions
Witnesses create Open Ended questions for their character.
Open Ended questions
Allow the witness to discuss any parts of the story that make his/herr team look good.
Example: “Tell me about your relationship with the defendant.”
The witness can talk about all of the good parts OR all of the bad parts – which ever works for your case.

13. Leading Questions (Cross-examination)
Advisory Councils create LEADING questions.
Leading Questions: “Force” the witness to answer in a certain way, and they help emphasize the effects the offense has had on the victim.

14. Sample Cross-Examination/Leading Questions
Often yes/no questions.
Isn’t it true that …?
You didn’t consider…, did you?
When everyone else left, you chose to stay. Isn’t that correct?
This crime happened when you…, right?

15. OBJECTIONS

16. Reasons to Object
FALSE TESTIMONY -What the witness said isn’t in the book (Directly stated, observed and/or witnessed.)
LEADING
Examples of leading questions: “Isn’t it true”/ “Didn’t you…”
Lawyers can only ask open-ended questions during direct examination (when they are questioning their own witnesses).
Lawyers can NOT ask his/her OWN witnesses leading questions.

17. Reasons to Object
UNABLE TO TESTIFY-The character on the witness stand was not present to see, hear or hear about what they are talking about.
OPINION-witnesses can only talk about opinions that were DIRECTLY STATED IN THE BOOK.

18. OPENING STATEMENTS

19. Opening Statement: What is it?
The opening statement is the time during which the lawyer may speak to the jury and describe the case.
The opening statement is not an argument.
It is during the opening statement that attorneys will tell the story of the case and what they hope to prove using the evidence that will be presented.
At the end of the opening statement, you will add your thesis.
The opening statement has three components:
The hook
The evidence
The call to action

20. Opening Statement General Advice
Avoid
•Lecturing
• Trying to impress the jury with your IQ or knowledge
• Too much narrative detail about witness testimony. Lengthy explanations and flowery words only lose the jury’s attention.
• Exaggeration and overstatement of facts that may not be proven
• Do not argue the law
• Defense should not repeat undisputed facts in its opening

21. Opening Statement tips - Prosecution
Content of the Presentation • Describe the offense or problem behavior and the circumstances surrounding it. • Present a believable and persuasive case theory (for “guilty” cases include how the harm can be repaired, the needs of the defendant, and the role of the community in the recommended sentence). • Present a short summary of the facts that support case theory. • Summarize evidence to be introduced, including witnesses, in an organized, engaging, and memorable fashion. • Recommend a guilty sentence.

22. Opening Statement tips - Defense
Content of the Presentation
Raise some doubt in the jurors minds about the prosecutor’s claims as to what your client has done.  
Highlight the facts in the case that support your defense theory.
 If the prosecutor points out that he has a solid eye witness to the crime, point out that the witness was over 150 feet away, or that the witness was biased, or that he is not very credible.  
If the prosecutor says that your clients fingerprints were found at the scene of the crime, point out that your client was previously present on the scene as a guest, or that he trespassed but did not steal anything.
 If the prosecutor claims your client was caught red-handed with the stolen items in his possession, point out that your client may not have known the items were stolen..

23. Example of an opening statement
Hook: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, think back to a time when you were with your significant other. You two have just been intimate with each other, and you feel so safe and comfortable with this person that you allow this person to take pictures of you in the shower. However, as soon as you are at your most vulnerable, closing your eyes as the water runs over your face, this person viciously stabs you in the chest. As you stumble out of the shower and to the vanity, gushing blood and in extreme pain, this person does not try to help you in any way, and instead this person stabs you at least 27 times. If that is not enough, as you try to crawl away from your lover, your head is viciously yanked backwards and your throat is slit. However, your lover is not done with you. Instead you are then finished off by a shot right above your eye, killing you instantly. Who would be this cold and vicious to someone she claimed to love? The defendant: Jodi Arias. .

24. Example of an opening statement
Summary of the facts of the case: In fact, ladies and gentlemen, this case is not about who committed the crime. It is about why it happened. You see the defendant, Jodi Arias, has now admitted that she brutally killed Travis Alexander, her former boyfriend in “self-defense”. However, Jodi didn’t always claim that she killed Travis in self-defense as she does now. In fact, when police first arrested her, she lied and said that she was never in Arizona. However, police knew this statement to be false because they found not only pictures of Jodi and Travis in his home at the time of the murder, but they also found her bloody handprint mixed with his blood on a hallway wall. So, then, Jodi changed her story and claimed that “masked intruders” broke into Travis’ house while she was there, and they killed Travis while she was able to, miraculously, escape alive. However, did Jodi Arias use her cellphone to call someone to help Travis? Did she run frantically to the neighbor and beg that person to call 911 to save her lover and former boyfriend?

25. Example of an opening statement
No. Instead Jodi left a dead Travis in his home and drove hundreds of miles to spend time with and make out with her new boyfriend. So, now, we are on to version 3 of her story. Now she claims that she had to kill Travis because he attacked her; that Travis’ murder was in “self-defense.” Of course, this claim is just another lie by Jodi in order to try to reduce her liability in this crime. However, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I will prove to you today that this crime was not in self-defense. This crime was pre-meditated murder. In fact, we will prove how Jodi borrowed gas cans from a former boyfriend, and bought her own gas can so that she would not have to fill up her tank on her way to Arizona because she knew that police can obtain gas receipts and videos from gas stations. She also faked a break- in at her grandparents’ house so that she could steal their gun, a .25 caliber pistol, which was the same type of gun used in the crime. Then, she secretly went to Travis’ house on the way to another boyfriend’s place, and she convinced Travis to have one more tryst with her.

26. Example of an opening statement
How do I know? Because we found the photographs that Jodi was unable to destroy from their night together. Then, Jodi, furious at Travis for dumping her for another woman, convinced Travis to let her take pictures of him in the shower. He agreed since he trusted her. However, this trust was mislaid, because as soon as Travis was at his most vulnerable, Jodi pulled a knife, that she had earlier stolen from Travis’ kitchen, and stabbed him in the chest with it. Travis is in incredible amounts of pain and shock. He stumbles to the bathroom sink, gushing blood. Instead of trying to help Travis, Jodi stabs him again, and again, and again until she has stabbed him at least 27 times. If that is not enough, as Travis tries to crawl away from her, she grabs his head and slits his throat. Then, to ensure that he is dead, she gets her .25 caliber pistol and shoots him right above his eye, killing him. Then, she drags a dead Travis to the shower and dumps his body there where it will later be found by his friends. We know all of these facts due to the overwhelming amount of evidence that Jodi left behind at this crime scene.

27. Example of an opening statement
How should the jury vote: So, again, this case is not about who killed Travis; it is about the why. By the end of this trial, you will see that Jodi did not kill Travis in “self-defense” as she claims, but she murdered him in cold blood to punish him for dumping her. So, I ask you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, at the end of this trial, find Jodi guilty of the crime she committed: pre-meditated first degree murder.

28. CLOSING STATEMENTS

29. Closing Statement – What is it?
Closing arguments are the opportunity for each party to remind jurors about key evidence presented and to persuade them to adopt an interpretation favorable to their position.
At this point, parties are free to use hypothetical analogies to make their points;
to comment on the credibility of the witnesses
to discuss how they believe the various pieces of the puzzle fit into a compelling whole
to advocate why jurors should decide the case in their favor.

30. Closing Statement - Tips
• Give a summary of the case. Isolate the issues and describe briefly how your presentation addressed these issues. • Refer only to the evidence presented in court (witness testimony and physical evidence). Outline the strengths of your side’s witnesses and the weaknesses of the other side’s witnesses. • Be very careful to adapt your statement at the end of the trial to reflect what the witnesses actually said and what the physical evidence showed. Never overstate the facts or your position. NEVER CITE TO ANY TESTIMONY OR EVIDENCE THAT DID NOT COME IN • Make argument based on what happened in court. Argue your case by stating how the law applies to the facts as you have proven them.

31. Closing Statement Example
Restatement of the evidence: Ladies and gentleman of the jury, you can now obviously see that Jodi Arias’ defense is a lie. I told you that we would prove to you that Jodi was with Travis that night, which was proven by the pictures that Jodi, herself, took and tried unsuccessfully to destroy. I also told you that we would prove that this murder was premeditated, which we did with the gas cans Jodi acquired so that she would not leave a trace of being in Arizona. Not only that, but we proved to you that the “break-in” was staged by Jodi in order to steal her grandparents’ .25-caliber pistol, which she used to shoot Travis in the head. I also said that we would prove that this case was not self- defense, which we have done via the medical examiner and other witnesses that testified about Travis’ injuries as well as the fact that Jodi began stalking Travis after he dumped her.

32. Closing Statement Example
No, ladies and gentlemen, this defendant is not some meek and mild young lady who had to protect herself from the mean and vicious Travis. In fact, the only wounds that Jodi had were the cuts to her hands that she received when she stabbed her former lover 27 times. Plus, she told no one about having to kill Travis in self-defense until after she was arrested for his murder. In fact, she did not call 911 to try to get the police to help her after Travis supposedly attacked her, nor did she tell the police officer that stopped her car on the highway between Arizona and Utah, where she went to meet up with her new boyfriend. She even didn’t say anything to this new boyfriend when he asked her about the cuts on her hand. Instead, she lied by saying she was injured at work, and then she continued to make out with him, knowing full well that Travis’ body was lying dead in his shower where she left him. However, one of the most damning pieces of evidence was the fact that the medical examiner testified that the only person who had any defensive wounds on their body was Travis Alexander, not Jodi Arias.

33. Closing Statement Example
No, ladies and gentlemen, this defendant is not some meek and mild young lady who had to protect herself from the mean and vicious Travis. In fact, the only wounds that Jodi had were the cuts to her hands that she received when she stabbed her former lover 27 times. Plus, she told no one about having to kill Travis in self-defense until after she was arrested for his murder. In fact, she did not call 911 to try to get the police to help her after Travis supposedly attacked her, nor did she tell the police officer that stopped her car on the highway between Arizona and Utah, where she went to meet up with her new boyfriend. She even didn’t say anything to this new boyfriend when he asked her about the cuts on her hand. Instead, she lied by saying she was injured at work, and then she continued to make out with him, knowing full well that Travis’ body was lying dead in his shower where she left him. However, one of the most damning pieces of evidence was the fact that the medical examiner testified that the only person who had any defensive wounds on their body was Travis Alexander, not Jodi Arias.

34. Closing Statement Example
How the jury should vote: Therefore, ladies and gentleman, we ask that you come back with a guilty verdict on first degree murder because that is what the defendant deserves. You can, with your vote of guilty, tell Jodi that you do not believe her lies and that you know that the true victim, the only victim, in this case is Travis Alexander, whose only crime was letting this cold and heartless woman into his life and into his bed.