How should an opening statement be STRUCTURED? This and a couple following posts will cover how to structure your opening statement and WHAT TO INCLUDE IN EACH PART.
Here, let’s focus on the BEGINNING of opening statement. The first minutes of your opening statement are critical. That’s when you grab the jurors’ attention and make them want to hear and see more. Under the rule of primacy, what you begin with is what they are likely to remember. So, seize their attention and make them want to hear more. begin with something memorable. Where were you on 9-11?
What grabs our attention and is memorable? We remember traumatic things – vivid things.
You can begin with your CASE THEME. Watch the prosecutor in the manslaughter trial of Conrad Murray for killing Michael Jackson. Watch how the prosecutor states the case theme and then segues to a human story about Michael Jackson.
You can start with a SCENE. You want an attention getter—one with emotion. Here is how the prosecutor began the opening in the Oklahoma Bombing Trial of Timothy McVey:
MR. HARTZLER: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, April 19th, 1995, was a beautiful day in Oklahoma City – at least it started out as a beautiful day. The sun was shining. Flowers were blooming. It was springtime in Oklahoma City. Sometime after six o'clock that morning, Tevin Garrett's mother woke him up to get him ready for the day. He was only 16 months old. He was a toddler; and as some of you know that have experience with toddlers, he had a keen eye for mischief. He would often pull on the cord of her curling iron in the morning, pull it off the countertop until it fell down, often till it fell down on him.
That morning she picked him up and wrestled with him on her bed before she got him dressed. She remembers this morning because that was the last morning of his life.
Another option is to begin with SHARP CONTRASTS. Contrast a calm scene of human activities juxtaposed against that of a violent act. Zacarias Moussaoui was prosecuted in federal court for conspiring to kill citizens of the United States as part of the September 11 attacks. Here is the BEGINNING of an Opening statement of Asst U.S. Atty Robert Spencer in the prosecution of Moussaoui – one of the 9-11 terrorists:
Thank you, Your Honor.
September 11th, 2001 dawned clear, crisp and blue in the northeast United States. In lower Manhattan in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, workers sat down at their desks tending to e-mail and phone messages from the previous days.
In the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, military and civilian personnel sat in briefings, were focused on their paperwork.
In those clear blue skies over New York, over Virginia, and over Pennsylvania, in two American Airlines jets and in two United Airlines jets, weary travelers sipped their coffee and read their morning papers as flight attendants made their first rounds.
And in fire and police stations all over New York City, the bravest among us reported for work.
It started as an utterly normal day, but a day that started so normally and with such promise, soon became a day of abject horror. By morning's end, 2,972 people were slaughtered in cold blood.
And that clear, blue sky became clouded with dark smoke that rose from the Trade Towers of New York, from the Pentagon in Virginia, and from a field in rural Pennsylvania. And within a few hours out of that clear, blue sky came terror, pain, misery, and death, and those 2,972 never again saw their loved ones, never again gave their kids a goodnight kiss.
That day, September 11th, 2001, became a defining moment, not just for 2,972 families, but for a generation.
Killers were among us that day and for more than just that day. Those killers had lived among us for months, planned for years to cut our throats, hijack our planes, and crash them into buildings to burn us alive.
On that day, September 11, 2001, a group of cold-blooded killers from distant lands capped their plan, their conspiracy, to kill as many innocent Americans as possible. . . .
David Ball, author of David Ball on Damages, recommends to Plaintiff’s lawyers that they start with THE RULE. Ball’s theory is that the jurors want most to know what the case is about. It’s about the defendant breaking the rule.
“A driver is required to watch and see what’s there to be seen. If a driver does not for an instant and as a result hurts someone, the driver is responsible for the harm.”
You have these fine choices for beginning your opening statement. You can begin with a theme, a scene, a sharp contrast or the rule. Make it an attention getter that will make the jurors want to hear and see more of your opening statement.
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