The depiction of a criminal trial in a movie is often a distortion of what really happens in a court of law. Although the unsuspecting viewer watches the courtroom scenes in a movie intently, he seldom realises that the scenes are grossly exaggerated and do not play out in the same way in a courtroom. “So what?” One might ask, “It’s only a movie, and what’s the worth of a movie if it does not provide some excitement based on an exaggerated version of reality?”

There really is no straightforward answer to that question, but one must know what really happens in a court of law, for we simply cannot afford to have the efficacy of the criminal justice system in our country measured based on the extent to which it conforms to a movie-goer’s expectation! Yet, sadly, this is what happens in our c

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