Storytelling for Lawyers
Page 30
58. Ibid., 76. Donovan says, “we don’t send people to jail, we don’t take people away from their wives, their children, their grandchildren, unless we are persuaded that he has done what the Government said and persuaded beyond a reasonable doubt.” Ibid.
59. Margaret Mehring, The Screenplay: A Blend of Film, Form and Content (Boston: Focal Press, 1990), 195.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid., 54.
62. Ibid.
63. Robert McKee, lecture, Story Structure Workshop, March 11–12, (New York, 1990) (notes on file with the author).
64. Mehring, The Screenplay, 54.
65. Ibid., 55 (emphasis added).
CHAPTER 6
1. James Ellroy, My Dark Places (New York: Vintage Books, 1997).
2. Norman Mailer, The Executioner’s Song (New York: Vintage, 1998), 223–24.
3. Truman Capote, In Cold Blood (New York: Vintage, 1994), 58–60, 62–65.
4. Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes (New York: Simon & Schuster, Touchstone, 1996).
5. David Lodge, The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts (New York: Penguin Books, 1992): 117–19.
6. Ibid., 118.
7. Ibid., 119.
8. Anthony G. Amsterdam and Philip N. Meyer, “Making Our Clients’ Stories Heard: A Guide to Narrative Strategies for Appellate and Postconviction Lawyers” (Administrative Office, U.S. Courts, 2008).
9. Jemme Bruner, Beyond the Information Given: Studies in the Psychology of Knowing (London: Allen and Unwin, 1974).
10. Ellroy, My Dark Places, 1.
11. Ibid., 2
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid., 3–6.
14. Lodge, The Art of Fiction, 117.
15. Ibid., 119.
16. Ibid.
17. Brief for Petitioner, Riggins v. Nevada, 504 U.S. 127 (1992).
18. Ibid., 2.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid., 6–7.
21. Ibid., 8.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid., 21.
25. David Lodge observes that the “purest form of showing” is “quoted speech of characters in which language exactly mirrors the event.” Lodge, The Art of Fiction, 121.
26. Lodge observes that “the purest form of telling is authorial summary, in which the conciseness and abstraction of the narrator’s language effaces the particularity of the characters and their actions.” Ibid., 122.
27. Ty Alper, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Todd E. Edelman, Randy Hertz, Rachel Shapiro Janger, Sonya Rudenstine, and Robin Walker-Sterling, “Stories Told and Untold: Lawyering Theory Analyses of the First Rodney King Assault Trial,” Clinical Law Review 12 (2005), 1.
28. Lodge, The Art of Fiction, 122.
29. Ibid.
30. Mailer, The Executioner’s Song, 223–24.
31. Ibid.
32. Capote, In Cold Blood, 16.
33. Ibid., 60, 62.
34. Ibid., 61–62.
35. Ibid., 61–62.
36. Ibid., 64–66.
37. Ibid., 65–66.
38. Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), 2001 WL 1663817.
39. Gerald Prince, A Dictionary of Narratology, rev. ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), 19. Prince defines “dialogic narrative” as “characterized by the interaction of several voices, consciousnesses, or world views, none of which unifies or is superior to (has more authority than) the others.” In dialogic as opposed to monologic narrative, the narrator’s views, judgments, and even knowledge do not constitute the ultimate authority with respect to the world represented but only one contribution among several—a contribution that is in dialogue with, and frequently less significant and perceptive than that of (some of), the characters.
40. Brief for Petitioner at 1, Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), 2001 WL 1663817.
41. Ibid., 2.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid., 3.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid., 4.
50. Ibid., 4–5.
51. Ibid., 6.
52. Ibid. (citations omitted).
53. Ibid., 6–7 (citations omitted).
54. John Gardner, The Art of Fiction (New York: Vintage Books, 1985), 155.
55. Ibid., 155–59.
56. Ibid., 155.
57. Ibid., 156.
58. Ibid., 157.
59. Ibid.
60. Lodge, The Art of Fiction, 26.
61. Brief for Petitioner at 38–39, Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), 2001 WL 1663817.
62. McCourt, Angela’s Ashes, 11.
63. Ibid.
64. Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362 (2000), 1999 WL 459574.
65. Ibid., 3.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Ibid., 3–4
69. Ibid., 4–5.
70. Mailer, The Executioner’s Song, 305–6, cited in Joshua Dressler, Cases and Materials on Criminal Law (St. Paul, MN: West, 2009), 46.
71. Wayne Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction, 2d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 274–81.
72. Transcript of the Morning Session of Closing Argument of Robert F. Devlin, Assistant United States Attorney, at 12, United States v. Bianco, No. H-90-18 (AHN) (D. Conn. Argued July 15, 1991) (D. Conn. 1990, affirmed 998 F.2d 1112 (2d Cir. 1993).
73. Ibid. at 22.
74. Transcript of Government’s Rebuttal Closing Argument by John Durham, Assistant United States Attorney, at 50–51, United States v. Bianco, No. H-90-18 (AHN) (D. Conn. Argued July 18, 1991) (emphasis added).
75. Janet Malcolm, “Iphigenia in Forest Hills: Anatomy of a Murder Trial,” New Yorker, May 3, 2010, 36.
76. Ibid., 36.
77. Ibid.
78. Ibid.
CHAPTER 7
1. Joan Didion, The White Album (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1979), 42.
2. According to former “Family” member Brooks Poston, Manson told the group on New Year’s Eve 1968: “Are you hep to what the Beatles are saying? Helter Skelter is coming down. The Beatles are telling it like it is.” “The Influence of The Beatles on Charles Manson,” last accessed March 25, 2012, at http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/manson/mansonbeatles.html.
3. Bob Dylan, Nashville Skyline, Columbia Records, 1969.
4. Leonard Cohen, Songs of Leonard Cohen, Columbia Records, 1967.
5. John Gardner, The Art of Fiction (New York: Vintage Books, 1985), 45.
6. Rusk v. State, 43 Md. App. 476, 406 A. 2d 624 (1979). The Maryland Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Court of Special Appeals in State v. Rusk, 289 Md. 230, 424 A.2d 720 (1981).
7. Rusk v. State, 43 Md. App. at 484, 406 A.2d at 628.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., 488–492, 406 A.2d at 631–32.
10. W.G. Sebald. The Emigrants (Frankfurt: Eichborn; London: Harvill Press, 1996), 112.
11. Ibid., 115–16.
12. Brief for Petitioner, Reck v. Ragen [decided sub nom. Reck v. Pate], 1961 WL 101763.
13. Ibid., 14–21 (footnotes containing transcript references and additional detail omitted). This is only a portion of a much longer narrative of Reck’s interrogation. The full narrative runs from page 10 through page 40. For another example of this kind of detailed narration of police interrogation in intimidating settings, see Brief for the Petitioner, Clewis v. Texas, 1966 WL 100419, at 12–25.
14. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).
15. Brief for Petitioner, Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) (transcript references and footnotes omitted), at 10.
16. Donovan’s notes, for example, call one of Failla’s friends “a character right out of Damon Runyon,” noting that Runyon was “a journalist, author, and film writer and producer whose slick and racy Broadway characters provided the inspiration for Frank Loesser’s musical Guys and Dolls.” Jeremiah Donovan, “Some Off-the-Cuff Remarks about Lawyers as
Storytellers,” Vermont Law Review 18 (1994), 751, 752, citing Encyclopedia Americana (international ed., 1986), 870.
17. House of Games, written and directed by David Mamet (1987); Heist, written and directed by David Mamet (2001).
18. Pulp Fiction, cowritten and directed by Quentin Tarantino (1994).
19. Kathryn Harrison, While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family (New York: Random House, 2008).
20. Ibid., 128–30.
21. Ibid., 134–36.
22. Brief for Petitioner, Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104 (1982), 1981 WL 389845.
23. Ibid., 12–14 (transcript references and footnotes omitted).
CHAPTER 8
1. Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Slaughterhouse Five or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (New York: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1994), 70–72.
2. Gerald Prince, A Dictionary of Narratology, rev. ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), 13.
3. David Lodge, The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts (New York: Penguin Books, 1992), 74
4. Prince, A Dictionary of Narratology, 76.
5. Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five, 84.
6. Prince, A Dictionary of Narratology, 5.
7. Ibid., 82.
8. Ibid., 5.
9. Transcript of Closing Argument at 10–11, United States v. Bianco, No. H-90-18 (AHN) (D. Conn. July 16, 1991) [hereinafter Transcript] (transcript of closing argument of Jeremiah Donovan on behalf of Louis Failla), aff’d, 998 F.2d 1112, 1128 (2d Cir. 1993).
10. Ibid.
11. Prince, A Dictionary of Narratology, 78.
12. “Completing prolepses fill in later gaps from ellipses in the narrative. Repeating prolepses, or advance notices, recount ahead of time events that will be recounted again.” Ibid., 77.
13. Michael S. Lief, H. Mitchell Caldwell, and Ben Bycel, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury: Greatest Closing Arguments in Modern Law (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), 154–55.
14. Ibid.
15. Prince, A Dictionary of Narratology, 77.
16. Ibid., 25.
17. Ibid.
18. Transcript, at 10–11.
19. Ibid.
20. Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five, 20–21.
21. Anthony G. Amsterdam and Philip N. Meyer, “Making Our Clients’ Stories Heard: A Guide to Narrative Strategies for Appellate and Postconviction Lawyers” (Administrative Office, U.S. Courts, 2008) 10.13–10.15.
CHAPTER 9
1. Anthony G. Amsterdam and Jerome Bruner, Minding the Law (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000).
2. Narrative and story are, most simply put and for our immediate purposes, synonymous. Narrative is the more highbrow and academic term, more sophisticated perhaps; while story is more down-to-earth and commonplace. Some academics make fine high cultural distinctions between these two words. See, for example, Gerald Prince’s definitions of and distinctions between narrative and story in A Dictionary of Narratology, rev. ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003).
3. Robert Cover, “Violence and the Word,” Yale Law Journal 95 (1986), 1601.
Index
actions
of characters, 84–85, 95, 99, 103–7
Donovan and, 103–7
Failla and, 99, 103–7
Actual Minds, Possible Worlds (Bruner), 1
advocacy, 187
characters and, 83–84
plot and, 11, 28
AEC. See Atomic Energy Commission
Aesop, morals by, 13
Amsterdam, Anthony G., 13, 202, 203
on characters, 83–84
on rhythm, 119–20
anachrony, 191–92
analepsis, 192–94
analogies
in The Estate of Karen Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, 29
of mud springs, 34–35, 52
anecdotes, in The Estate of Karen Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, 33, 56–57
Angela’s Ashes (McCourt), 119
hook from, 143–44
antagonist. See also villain
in The Estate of Karen Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, 35, 59, 64–68
hero and, 36
in melodrama, 20
progressive complications of, 24
villain as, 19
aphorisms
by Cochran, 35
in The Estate of Karen Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, 29
arguments. See also closing argument
facts for, 2–3
perspective in, 139–40
into story, 40
The Art of Fiction (Lodge), 123–24
Aspects of the Novel (Forster), 75
Atkins v. Virginia
death penalty mitigation in, 153
first-person perspective in, 139
pacing in, 197–98
summary for, 134–37
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), 30
audience. See also jury
in death penalty mitigation, 65
in The Estate of Karen Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, 32–33
expectations of, 18
Failla and, 111–12
good and evil and, 23–24
of High Noon, 22
identification of, 29, 74–75
plot and, 12
theme for, 16
voice and, 117
audio evidence, 6
Auletta, Patty, 99
Austen, Jane, 60–63, 192
backstory
in The Estate of Karen Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, 30–31
grading law school examinations, 115–17
in High Noon, 75, 78
in Jaws, 21
Back to the Future (movie), 196
Bal, Mieke, 196, 198
The Beatles, 159
beginning, 202–9. See also opening
by Donovan, 93–100
ending and, 57–64
Failla and, 93–100
framing story at, 9
infinite number of, 38
Lodge on, 60–63
narrative profluence and, 11
narrative time and, 199–200
trouble in, 63
betrayal
Cochran and, 18
in High Noon, 22, 26, 79
in melodrama, 26
Bogart, Humphrey, 71
briefs
characters and, 83–84
in coerced confession cases, 164–75
for Eddings v. Oklahoma, 175–84
flash-forward in, 195
for Miranda v. Arizona, 174–75
for Reck v. Ragen, 172
for Riggins v. Nevada, 124–26
summary and, 127, 128
voice in, 130
Brooks, Peter, 8–9
on ending, 58
on good and evil, 81–82
on melodrama, 68
on plot, 12
Bruner, Jerome, 1, 13, 203–5, 207
on jury, 40
buddy pictures, 99
burden of proof, in The Estate of Karen Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, 33
Burke, Kenneth, 4, 207
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 99
Capote, Truman, 119, 130–33
pacing by, 198
cartoons, of Failla, 107, 108f, 109f
Castagna, Sonny, 104, 110, 111
Caulfield, Holden (fictional character), 139
causality
motivation and, 74
in plot, 11–12
reverse, 190
Chandler, Raymond, 63
changing characters, 77–78
character arc, 77
of Failla, 108–9
character development
in closing argument, 90–114
in High Noon, 22
in This Boy’s Life, 82–89
characterization
in closing argument, 90–114
of Failla, 90–114
in movies, 80
in This Boy’s Life, 82–89
characters, 69–114. See also specific characters
/>
actions of, 84–85, 95, 99, 103–7
advocacy and, 83–84
briefs and, 83–84
changing, 77–78
in closing argument, 4–5, 90–114
description of, 83, 85
dialogue of, 83–84, 85, 103–7
flat, 75–76, 81–82, 92
in High Noon, 75–82
irony of, 72
judges and, 74
jury and, 74
Lodge on, 72
Mehring on, 112
motivation of, 74
in movies, 70–71
in novels, 72
plot and, 70
as protagonists, 74–75
Roemer on, 65, 72
round, 76–77, 80–81, 92