Why the Trial?

From the far-off days when we huddled around the fires and passed judgment on one another in tribal councils to the modern courtroom with its twenty-four hour cable news coverage, the trial seems something fundamental to the human experience.  Thousands of years before the birth of Christ, the Egyptians buried their dead with copies of the Book of Coming Forth By Day, a collection of spells that would allow the deceased to win a “not guilty” judgment in the courtroom of the gods.  The Code of Hammurabi, our oldest surviving collection of laws, includes penalties for those who lie at trial.  The savage barbarians who plundered the civilized Roman Empire had complex legal procedures, and even the wildest revolutionaries, in the midst of overthrowing the entire framework of their government, will give a form of trial to their political enemies rather than simply butchering them outright.  Something about the trial calls out to something fundamental in our nature– a human need to seek out the truth, to hear the sides of an argument, to involve the community in a judgment.  Whether priests or gods or tyrants or citizens sit empaneled to render justice, the trial seems to be a common denominator of civilization.

And despite the ritual and formality of the trial, it is also a place we can sometimes see human nature on display in its rawest form– all of the emotion and drama and carrhesis of the Greek tragedies, but with real people on the stage, playing for real stakes.  Whether we are passionate about history or fascinated by the threads of our common humanity or just seek the most potent stories we can find, the trial provides for all of our needs.

I’m not an expert in the trial by any stretch of the imagination, but I find the subject fascinating.  This podcast will be my attempt to explore the trial case-by-case, looking at some of the most famous and important trials in human history– and maybe at a few that you’ve never heard of– as part of my own quest to understand what about the trial is so powerful, so compelling, and so necessary to the human experience.  I hope you’ll join me.