Classical Rhetoric in Florida Criminal Defense Cases
Math and science nerds may get bullied, but humanities nerds are at the bottom of the social ladder in high school. When your criminal defense lawyer was in high school, the math and science nerds taunted her about the fact that they would get careers where they could make so much money that they could easily get away with breaking the law. What was a humanities nerd going to do with all that eloquence? Everyone knows that when people claim to love someone for his verbal skills, it is really his looks or his money that they admire, and they are just saying they love his fine speech so that they don’t appear shallow. Once they get through law school, though, the humanities nerds have the last laugh. The four classical rhetorical skills, as described by Aristotle, sound like the first school lesson that the entrepreneurship bros of the world will single out for disparagement. When would anyone use those? When defending you, of course, when you get accused of a crime, since everyone has the right to present defenses against the charges he or she is facing, and everyone has the right to representation by a criminal defense attorney. Here, our Miami criminal defense lawyer explains how the four classical rhetorical modes can get you acquitted in a criminal trial.
The Courtroom Brings the Kairos
Aristotle originally identified the three modes of rhetoric, that is, the three things that make a person’s speech persuasive, as ethos, logos, and pathos. Later, he added a fourth mode, Kairos, which he had not originally thought of, because it was so obvious that he took it for granted. Kairos is the moment, the setting, the context where the speech takes place. It is why people propose marriage in front of scenic waterfalls instead of on threadbare couches whose cushions probably do not conceal enough coins to afford dinner at Taco Bell. If your lawyer is speaking to a jury at a trial, the Kairos is already there. By the time the jurors get to the jury box, they are ready to be convinced and to look for reasonable doubt about the defendant’s guilt.
Lawyers and Expert Witnesses Bring the Ethos
In rhetoric, ethos is the speaker’s credibility based on who he or she is; it is the speaker’s reputation. The good news is that all defendants in criminal cases have the right to representation by a lawyer. Your lawyer graduated from law school, and most of the jurors didn’t, so this fact provides ethos. Having expert witnesses introduce themselves by listing their qualifications is also an appeal to ethos.
No Criminal Defense Case Can Succeed Without Logos
Logos, as its name suggests, means logic. No argument at trial can succeed without logic; without it, the grandeur of the courtroom and the credentials of the expert witnesses are just window dressing. Throughout the pretrial phase, your lawyer works to build logical arguments based on the available evidence. To drive home the point of the argument, lawyers sometimes walk jurors through all the steps of the argument but leave the conclusion they intend to reach. Then the jurors say the conclusion out loud to each other; since they have all reached the same conclusion, they can deliver a verdict. This is better than stating the conclusion, because people do not like being told what to think.
Successful Pathos Requires You to Know Your Audience
Pathos is an appeal to emotion. Getting an emotional reaction out of an audience sounds simple, but people’s emotional reactions are individual, and people dislike being told what to feel even more than they dislike being told what to think. Successfully harnessing pathos at a criminal trial is a matter of knowing your audience.
Making an emotional connection is a two-way street. During the trial, the jurors cannot respond to the lawyer except through their facial expressions. The time to get to know the jurors and their feelings about issues related to the trial is during jury selection; it is not just about weeding out biased jurors and those that are too busy to attend the trial. Lawyers are not just good at spinning arguments; they are good at interpreting people’s views based on what they say and what they do not say.
Contact Our Criminal Defense Attorneys
A South Florida criminal defense lawyer can help you by presenting effective defenses if you are facing criminal charges. Contact Ratzan & Faccidomo in Miami, Florida for a confidential consultation about your case.
Sources:
ncdd.com/top-dui-attorneys-blog/three-keys-to-creating-winning-arguments-pathos-logos-and-ethos#:~:text=How%20do%20we%2C%20as%20attorneys,%2C%20and%20ethos%2C%20can%20help.
law.temple.edu/aer/2022/10/24/persuasion-science-for-trial-lawyers/#:~:text=By%20enticing%20the%20jurors%20to,because%20they%20have%20persuaded%20themselves.
