Opening Statement of a Trial

In today’s court system it’s not what you know it’s what you can prove, this statement has assisted me with the choice of discussing the Opening Statement of a Trial. Open statements can be catastrophic in any trial process, I would like to think of opening statements as the seed that initiates doubt in the minds of the jury. Opening Statements are defined as the information presented to the jury by both the prosecution and the defense attorney; solely to advise the jury of what each side intends to prove and how they will provide that information.

Opening statements are evidence or verdict, this process allows the prosecution to state what they are going to prove and how their proof relates to the case. For example the prosecutions opening statement would be: my intentions here today is to prove that the stand accused did in fact commit the nature of these crimes with the thought of consequence, lack of neither concern nor consideration for others. Today intend to prove that the nature of the crimes were in fact committed by the suspect at hand and at the time of the crime they were in their right frame of mind and should be found guilty of all crimes committed.

This is also an excellent time for the prosecution to indirectly character assassinate without it directly being pointed at the defendant. I feel that the prosecution has the upper hand in any opening statement because they have all the words, and knowledge of putting those stereo-types and judgments into the jury’s head what sticks out the most is the defendant is already presumed guilty by the public because they even committed a crime. The law plainly states that a person is innocent until found guilty, it’s sad that society already has their verdict based on being a criminal period.

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In an opening statement the defense attorney’s job would be to defend their client to the best of their ability, their main goal is to dismiss any statement that the prosecution has presented to prove their evidence. An example of a defense attorney would be solely to discredit the prosecutions opening statement. The defense attorney would state that there client didn’t in fact commit the crime that they have been accused of, that their client is innocent until the prosecution can prove otherwise.

Also during the defense opening statement they would high lite the excellent qualities of the defendant; stating their qualities in the community, education, employment status. Most importantly they would state how they prosecution has no real evidence on the defendant and how they will dismiss the prosecutions accusations. The opening statements are the foot work for presenting the evidence in a trial; this gives the jury the opportunity to process both sides of the opening statement in conjunction with the evidence that will be presented to be able to provide a verdict of guilty or not guilty.

It amazes me how the trial process starts with the first initial process of the trial initiation and proceeds to the end result or a verdict, this process reminds me of so many anonymous 12 step program. You can complete one process before the other, the first process has to be initiated and then move to the next the processes all follow each other. They were formulated one before the other to make the process as correct and successful as possible.

REFERENCES

1. (schmalleger, 11th edition 21st century criminal justice today, pages, 350-356)

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