Crime & Federalism

Lawyers, like humans, seem to be only contextually smart. Tell a lawyer what you think the law is, and he will ask: What are your case citations? It's simply understood that a person making a claim must support his claim with the best available evidence. 

Yet talk to a lawyer about trials or juries. Juries are human, and thus one would think a lawyers opinions on jury dynamics would have some basis in the study of human behavior, namely psychology. You'd be surprised at the number of lawyers who have never read a book on psychology. 

Thus, much of what is considered conventional wisdom is nothing more than superstition. Take, for example, the example of mug shots. Imagine your client is going to be arrested. What do you tell him to do? More importantly, what do you base your advice on? 

John Edwards was arrested, and he's smiling. What would one lawyer advise?

In high-profile cases, clients will sometimes ask defense counsel how they should look in a mug shot that will be plastered across the media. There are different schools of thought, but John Edwards clearly went with the smiling “I Can’t Believe These Guys Are Doing This” shot.

On one hand if you look sad, you look guilty On the other hand, if you look happy, you appear callous.

I have serious reservations about this case and its legal grounding. However, I would have encouraged Edwards to adopt a more neutral look for his mug shot. 

This is stupid. As much as you might intellectually dislike people who smile (and, yes, you should be suspicious of smilers), it's a fact that smiling and being well dressed makes people well-liked. It works even when you know that the person in front of you is a viper: 

Interestingly, recent findings also show that narcissism is detectableat zero acquaintance (Vazire et al., 2008). Observers thus seem to like narcissists at first sight, although they accurately perceive their narcissism.

Are narcissists really more popular at first sight? When perceivers were exposed to the full amount of information available from targets’ appearances and behaviors at zero acquaintance, a significant positive effect of narcissism on popularity was found. Narcissists indeed make a positive impression on strangers. This was found for uninvolved as well as for highly involved perceivers. Thus, despite the negative interpersonal consequences of narcissism in long-term relationships, narcissists are more popular at first sight.

Thus, if you want people to like you - and if you're charged with a crime, you need people to like you - then you had better smile and wear nice clothing:

Narcissism was related to fancier clothing, a more charming facial expression, more self-assured body movements, and more verbal humor, all of which led to popularity.

In trials, the law is almost always going to go against the defense, and thus reading cases has only marginal value. I'll wager that Gerry Spence hasn't read a published opinion in several years. Far more valuable than the most recent published opinion is the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which you can scan here.