The Tragedy And Farce Of A Dramatic Murder Trial

For sheer human interest, the ability to catch public attention and cleave to it from start to finish, nothing else in real life equals a good murder trial. A prominent victim, or, even better, a prominent defendant; a bit of mystery surrounding the facts of the case; two teams of high-powered attorneys facing each other across the courtroom; a cluster of witnesses, each contributing a few tantalizing facts to a tale of human fallibility; a battery of expert witnesses to explain the unexplainable; a man's or woman's life or freedom hanging in the balance--these are the makings of high drama. As Shakespeare taught us, good drama is an intimate mixture of both tragedy and farce.

Michael Kurland, How to Try a Murder, 2002