Word: courtroom
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Besse's murder took place as another terrorist drama unfolded in a West Berlin courtroom. Opening amid tight security, the trial of Palestinians Ahmed Hasi and Farouk Salameh brought forward evidence that the Syrian government was linked to the March bombing in West Berlin of the German-Arab Friendship Society offices, which left nine people injured. The trial provided a bizarre sideshow. Screaming and gesturing wildly from behind a bulletproof screen, Hasi claimed that "voices, sounds and music" were being piped into his cell to make him confess. The frenzied defendant is the brother of Nezar Hindawi, a Jordanian...
...trial has tried to shed some light on the controversy. In On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald, a two-part, 5 1/2-hour program that debuted on Showtime last weekend and will be repeated several times in upcoming weeks, the case against Oswald is argued for the first time in a courtroom setting under the rules of courtroom evidence. Real witnesses are examined by real attorneys, and the testimony is evaluated by a jury. The verdict: guilty of murder. Polled on a separate question, the jury decided by a majority vote that Oswald was the sole assassin...
Though most of the witnesses have testified previously, they have never before faced crossexamination. Both attorneys are persuasive advocates. Bugliosi deflates some of the more outlandish conspiracy theories with rapid- fire probes. Spence, a drawling, flamboyant courtroom performer, homes in shrewdly on ambiguities and unanswered questions in the official account...
...newcomers have moved progressively further away from courtroom authenticity. People's Court remains the only show to feature real people arguing real lawsuits. On Divorce Court, the litigants are portrayed by actors, and the testimony, heavily spiced with tales of adultery and kinky sex, is scripted. The attorneys, however, are played by real lawyers, and the decision is left up to the judge, William B. Keene, a retired California jurist. On Superior Court, all the participants are played by actors, and the proceedings -- including the final decision by Judge William D. Burns Jr., a Los Angeles municipal-court commissioner...
...contrast to the engrossing banalities of People's Court, the newer shows are filled with hokey courtroom theatrics. Defendants leap to their feet to protest adverse testimony, judges are portrayed as benevolent father figures ("This job sure gets to you once in a while," muttered Superior Court's Burns after one tough decision), and surprise witnesses abound. Viewers of Divorce Court have grown accustomed to salacious testimony that borders on parody. (Cross-examining lawyer to grocery delivery boy: "Aren't you the one ^ who propositioned Mrs. Cullen at the produce department, saying she was 'ripe and ready to eat?' " Delivery...