Hans Reiser Guilty of First Degree Murder (Wired)

In the US, a common mistake of the educated is to assume that the Justice system is about
facts. The justice system is about emotion, facts are just a way to justify the emotion. 

If trials were only about facts inflammatory language wouldn't be used, but the prosecutor
calls the defendant those names because it incites an emotional response. For example in the
Hans trial closing remarks the prosecutor read a passage from a children's book found in the
car of Han's wife. Such action was to incite anger and sadness for the loss of the mother to
the children, and secondarily to try to show the fact that the mother wouldn't abandon her
children (as the defense contended). The emotional response was the target, the fact was used
to justify the blatant attempt to influence the emotions of the jury. 

The best lawyers are those that can weave emotion and fact together to create the emotional
response the lawyer wants in the jury. Whether you approve or disprove of this isn't entirely
relevant as this is a fact of the justice system and I doubt this will ever change as long as
people are involved in the process.

In the case of Hans I doubt the Jury would have convicted him had he not gotten on the stand
and produced such unbelievable responses for his strange behavior after the disappearance.