Word: courtroom
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Presumed Innocent's finest moments are its courtroom scenes. Many of the facts pertinent to the case are known to the reader before any of the witnesses take the stand, and a few shockers surface during the proceedings. But the primary excitement is derived through the interplay--how will these characters, whose relationships Turow has gradually revealed, respond to the drama...
...involved must leave the courtroom with an expanded view of base human motivation and emotional capacity...
...happened then?" asked M'Bemba. "If there is a race that has been perpetually oppressed from slavery until now, it is the Negro race." When the Congolese lawyer said he had shaken Barbie's hand as a mark of respect when he met him, a murmur ran through the courtroom. M'Bemba snapped back, "I can understand your reaction. You have not lived what I have lived...
...complicity in the Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon in September 1982. "There is no hierarchy of atrocity," he said, "no discrimination between cemeteries, no differences between suffering." When Bouaita denounced the "nazification of the Jewish-Israeli people" and accused the Israelis of responsibility for a "Palestinian genocide," the courtroom erupted with whistles and shouts...
After conducting such diversionary tactics, Verges surprised many in the courtroom by launching into a classic defense of Barbie, attacking what the lawyers claimed were inconsistencies in the evidence and testimony presented by the prosecution. "I am not saying this to mock the witnesses," said Verges, "but after 40 years memories become confused." Not above a bit of theatrics, he called the expulsion of Barbie from Bolivia illegal and, as such, a "dishonor for France...