The function of the opening is to tell him.
As the counsel begins opening every juryman leans forward and watches
him intently. They feel their responsibility as officers of justice
and there have been few complaints of their falling asleep during the
trial. The jurymen have come to know the names of the opposing lawyers
and the faces of the clients, if they have been pointed out during the
examination of the jurors, but nothing more. Are the jury to hear a
story of bitter resentment or of passion and crime, or a calm demand
for the payment of a debt? The opening will show.
Did the plaintiff during years of effort build up a business and take
the defendant in as a partner only to be defrauded by him? Plaintiff's
attorney will indicate the years of effort briefly, but impressively,
before sketching the manner in which the defendant stole from him by
fraud the fruits of his labor. When the plaintiff then testifies that
in 1890 he opened a small store in Fourteenth Street, moved in 1896 to
Twenty-third Street and thence in 1916 to an up-town street off the
Avenue, the dates will sink into the jurors' minds and they will
portray for themselves the twenty-six years of painstaking effort.
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