Gif.han Chewie What Do You Know

Nonsensical legal defence force strategy

In a jury trial, a Chewbacca defence is a legal strategy in which a criminal defense lawyer tries to confuse the jury rather than refute the example of the prosecutor. It is an intentional distraction or obfuscation.

As a Chewbacca defense distracts and misleads, it is an case of a red herring. Information technology is also an case of an irrelevant conclusion, a type of breezy fallacy in which 1 making an argument fails to address the outcome in question.^{[ane] [ii]} Oft an opposing counsel can legally object to such arguments by declaring them irrelevant, character evidence, or argumentative.

The name Chewbacca defence force comes from "Chef Assist", an episode of the American blithe serial South Park. The episode, which premiered on Oct 7, 1998, satirizes the O. J. Simpson murder trial, particularly chaser Johnnie Cochran's closing argument for the defense force. In the episode, Cochran bases his argument on a false premise well-nigh the 1983 motion picture Return of the Jedi. He asks the jury why a Wookiee like Chewbacca would want to live on Endor with the much smaller Ewoks when "it does not make sense". He argues that if Chewbacca living on Endor does not brand sense—and if even mentioning Chewbacca in the case does not brand sense—then the jury must conduct.

In the Simpson murder trial, the real Johnnie Cochran tried to convince jurors that a glove found at the crime scene, declared to take been left by the killer, could not be Simpson's because it did not fit Simpson'southward hand. Because the prosecution relied on the glove every bit evidence of Simpson's presence at the scene, Cochran argued that the lack of fit proved Simpson's innocence: "It makes no sense; it doesn't fit; if information technology doesn't fit, you must conduct." "If it doesn't fit, you lot must acquit" was a refrain that Cochran as well used in response to other points of the case.

Origin [edit]

In the episode, the graphic symbol of Chef contacts a "major record company" executive, seeking to have his name credited as the composer of a fictional Alanis Morissette hit called "Stinky Britches". Chef'due south claim is substantiated by a 20‑year-old recording of Chef performing the song.

The tape visitor refuses and hires Johnnie Cochran, who files a lawsuit confronting Chef for harassment. In court, Cochran resorts to his "famous" Chewbacca defense, which he "used during the Simpson trial," according to Chef's lawyer, Gerald Broflovski. Although Broflovski uses logic, reasoning, and the fact that Chef properly copyrighted his work, Cochran counters with the following:

Cochran

...ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, I have one terminal thing I want yous to consider. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about information technology; that does not brand sense!

Gerald Broflovski

Damn it! ... He's using the Chewbacca defence force!

Cochran

Why would a Wookiee, an 8-pes-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? That does non make sense! Just more important, you take to inquire yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, information technology has nada to do with this case! It does non make sense! Look at me. I'm a lawyer defending a major tape company, and I'thou talkin' well-nigh Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! So yous have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberatin' and conjugatin' the Emancipation Proclamation, does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must comport! The defence rests.^[3]

This statement is a parody of Cochran'south endmost arguments in the O. J. Simpson murder case, where he said to the jury, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit!" He was referring to a courtroom sit-in in which Simpson appeared unable to put on a pair of encarmine leather gloves found at the murder scene and his house over the medical gloves he was wearing.^{[4] [5]}

In the episode, Cochran's defense is successful. The jury finds Chef guilty of "harassing a major record label", subsequently which the gauge sets his penalty as either a $ii million fine to be paid within 24 hours or, failing that, iv years in prison house (the judge initially sentences him to eight million years before beingness corrected by a court officer).

Ultimately, a "Chef Aid" do good concert is organized to raise money for Chef to hire Cochran for his own lawsuit against the tape company. At the concert, Cochran has a modify of heart and offers to correspond Chef pro bono. He again successfully uses the Chewbacca defense force, this time to defeat the record company and force them to admit Chef'due south authorship of their vocal. In the second use of the Chewbacca defense, he ends by taking out a monkey puppet and shouting, "Here, wait at the monkey. Look at the light-headed monkey!" causing a juror'south head to explode.

Use [edit]

The Associated Printing obituary for Cochran mentioned the Chewbacca defence force parody as one of the ways in which the attorney had entered pop culture.^[six]

Criminologist Thomas O'Connor says that when DNA evidence shows "inclusion", that is, does not exonerate a customer by exclusion from the DNA sample provided, "About the only thing you can practise is set on the lab for its (lack of) quality assurance and proficiency testing, or use a 'Chewbacca defence' … and attempt to razzle-dazzle the jury about how circuitous and complicated the other side's evidence or probability estimates are."^[seven] Forensic scientist Erin Kenneally has argued that court challenges to digital testify frequently use the Chewbacca defense by presenting multiple culling explanations of forensic testify obtained from computers and Net providers to confuse the jury into reasonable doubt. Kenneally as well provides methods that can be used to rebut a Chewbacca defense.^{[8] [nine]} Kenneally and colleague Anjali Swienton accept presented this topic before the Florida Land Courtroom System and at the 2005 American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting.^[x]

The term has also seen employ in political commentary; Ellis Weiner wrote in The Huffington Mail service that Dinesh D'Souza was using the Chewbacca defense force in criticism of then-new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, defining it equally when "someone asserts his claim by saying something so manifestly nonsensical that the listener's brain shuts down completely".^[eleven]

Jay Heinrichs' book Thank you for Arguing states that the term "Chewbacca defense" is "sneaking into the dictionary" every bit another name for the red herring fallacy.^[12]

The term was used by Paul Krugman, who wrote in The New York Times that John Taylor is using the Chewbacca defense as a seemingly last option for defending his hawkish budgetary policy position, after years of publicly stating that "quantitative easing would lead to a major acceleration of inflation."^[13]

Analysis by lawyers [edit]

Josh Gilliland of the Legal Geeks states in their blog that "A gauge likely would say, 'I accept a bad feeling near this' and perhaps declare a mistrial if such an statement was made in courtroom." Gilliland continued "A party successfully using the Chewbacca Defense to misfile the jury into engaging in jury nullification in a civil lawsuit runs the take a chance of the losing party winning on a Judgment Still the Verdict (JNOV). In Chef's instance, the copyright violation should have entitled him to a judgment as a matter of law."^[14]

Come across also [edit]

• Affluenza defense – Negative socio-psychological furnishings of consumerism
• Dead cat strategy – Introduction of a distracting topic
• Rex Kong defense – Copyright infringement trial of torrent tracker
• The Matrix defense
• Shaggy defense – Legal strategy
• Twinkie defense – Merits that some biological factor nowadays in the defendant provides a defense against the accused crimes

References [edit]

1. ^ Willing v. Country, Slip Copy at n.one (Sup. Ct. Nev. May xiv, 2013).
2. ^ Bd. of Trustees of Galveston Wharves v. Trelleborg, CV 10-2319-GW (C.D. Cal. Nov. 22, 2010)
3. ^ Video of the scene is available.
4. ^ "CNN Interactive: Video Almanac – 1995". Archived from the original on December four, 2010.
5. ^ "O.J. Simpson Infamously Trying On Gloves At Trial". YouTube. Investigation Discovery. Archived from the original on Nov 18, 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2018.
6. ^ "Cochran was rare attorney turned pop culture figure". Associated Printing. March 30, 2005. Retrieved Jan 27, 2007.
7. ^ Thomas O'Connor, Ph.D., Austin Peay Country University Center at Ft. Campbell and N Carolina Wesleyan College. "Dna Typing and Identification". Archived from the original on October 9, 2006. Retrieved Jan 27, 2007. {{cite spider web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
8. ^ Erin Kenneally, 1000.F.S., J.D. "Applying Admissibility, Reliability to Engineering" (PDF). Florida State Courts. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 7, 2006. Retrieved January 27, 2007. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
9. ^ Anjali R. Swienton, M.F.S., J.D. Erin Kenneally, M.F.Due south., J.D. "Poking the Wookie: the Chewbacca Defense in Digital Show Cases" (PDF). SciLaw Forensics, Ltd. Archived from the original (PDF) on Oct 8, 2007. Retrieved January 27, 2007. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
10. ^ "Upcoming AAFS Annual Meeting". CERIAS, Purdue University. Archived from the original on January 8, 2009. Retrieved Jan 27, 2007.
11. ^ Ellis Weiner (January 24, 2007). "D is for Diabolical". The Huffington Mail service . Retrieved January 27, 2007.
12. ^ Heinrichs, Jay (2007). Thank you for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach U.s.a. Near the Fine art of Persuasion . New York: Three Rivers Printing. pp. 148–49. ISBN978-0-307-34144-0.
13. ^ Paul Krugman (July 12, 2013). "The Monetary Debate: Enter Chewbacca". The New York Times . Retrieved July 12, 2013.
14. ^ Gilliland, Josh (May 3, 2013). "A Legal Assay of The Chewbacca Defense force". The Legal Geeks.

Further reading [edit]

• Arp, Robert (2006). "The Chewbacca Defense: A South Park Logic Lesson". South Park and Philosophy: Y'all Know, I Learned Something Today. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN978-1-4051-6160-2.
• Browning, John G. (2014). "A Long Time Agone, in A Court Far, Far Abroad In that location's No Denying That the Strength Is All Around Us-Even Judges Refer to George Lucas'south Popular Culture Science Fiction Saga", 77 Texas Bar Journal 158, 161

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewbacca_defense

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