JUDICIAL RHETORIC IN A FRAGMENTARY WORLD - CHARACTER AND STORYTELLINGIN THE FRANK,LEO CASE

This essay considers how both legal and public rhetors construct our j urisprudential norms in terms of the Leo Frank trial. Specifically, it examines the ways in which ''characters'' are developed in legal disc ourse in efforts to gain our warranted assent. Unlike more traditional critiques that evaluate the formal logics of the leading cases, this essay focuses attention on the ways in which race, class, and gender a re constructed in discussions of Leo Frank's guilt or innocence. The e ssay highlights the rhetorical dimensions of direct and cross-examinat ion, closing statements, and press accounts of the trial.