Rhetorical transformation of evidence in criminal trials: Creating grounds for legal judgment

Abstract

The numerous rhetorical practices used by lawyers in courtroom argument can be categorized according to three types of effects they may have on the structure of a case. This simplification of discourse in the courtroom shows how the body of evidence in a case is organized for judgment by jurors. Within this framework the trial becomes an elegant communication system centered around the rhetorical construction of “legal facts.”