Closing Argument

Once we have presented our witnesses and rested, each side gets a chance to argue to the jury what the evidence means. The government may argue first and last. The first portion of its argument is usually minimal; the government will save its big guns for the last argument. Because we don't get a chance to respond to the government's argument, our argument has to cover everything that we think the government might say. But our argument is not a response to what we expect the government to say; instead it is a final telling of our story, putting all of the parts in order and wrapping them up convincingly so that no matter what the government argues the jury wants to find for us. Sometimes cases are won in closing argument. But more often they are won earlier in trial, when the story is told to the jury so persuasively that the jurors have made up their minds before either side gets up to argue. Argument is an opportunity to shore up the favorable jurors' decisions, so that the jurors who want to acquit the defendant don't lose their nerve when they get in the jury room, and they return with the thing we have been trying to get since before taking the case: a two-word ("not guilty") verdict.