With Jurors in Mind: An Ethnographic Study of Prosecutors’ Narratives

Abstract

This article examines the role of lay decision-makers in American prosecutors’ case preparation. Drawing on ethnographic research, it focuses on the creative and collaborative process by which prosecutors develop and revise opening and closing statements for trial. I argue in Part I that these narratives are keyed to perspectives that prosecutors attribute to hypothetical jurors. Part II focuses on the relationship prosecutors articulate between particular narrative techniques and jurors’ perceptions of their character and evidence. The central empirical finding is that prosecutors formulate and negotiate narratives about their cases with continual reference to jurors’ potential interpretations of them. This interactive process of critique and revision reveals the contingent and reflexive nature of prosecutorial discretion. It also illuminates the scope and organization of the knowledge that prosecutors draw on to anticipate how jurors might scrutinize their work.