FALSE CONFESSION SCIENCE

Can trial lawyers and advocacy teachers learn from a book about false confessions, moving beyond that specific problem to more general lessons about jurors, belief systems, and persuasion?  The answer, at least if one reads DUPED, is a resounding “yes.”  Let me take you to that book, the scary phenomenon of false confessions as they

THEME OR TRUST – WHICH COMES FIRST?

As advocacy teachers and advocates we thrust “theme” on our students and our audiences [jurors].  We do so with good cause – and we insist that it be embedded in the primacy moment of our presentation.  Our students comply – with somber or indignant righteousness they intone the catchphrase of the case, be it the