|
A Chewbacca defense is the name given to a legal strategy in which the aim of the argument seems to be to deliberately confuse the jury rather than actually refute the case of the other side. The concept's name comes from episode 27 of the animated series ''South Park'', "Chef Aid", which premiered on October 7, 1998. This episode satirised attorney Johnnie Cochran's closing argument defending O. J. Simpson in his murder trial. The term has since been commonly used in describing legal cases, especially criminal ones. The concept of disguising a flaw in one's argument by presenting large amounts of irrelevant information has previously been described as a ''red herring'' or the fallacy ''ignoratio elenchi'' (''irrelevant conclusion''). Within the context of the episode, the fictional Cochran begins his defense case by basing his argument on the ''Star Wars'' film series, specifically on the (incorrect) claim that the character Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. He goes on to point out first the supposed senselessness of this decision, noting that "it does not make sense", and then how his use of ''Star Wars'' as evidence in a harassment suit "does not make sense" either, and that therefore the case should be dismissed. His closing argument "If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit" lampoons the real Cochran's "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit". ==Origin== In the episode, Chef contacts a "major record company" executive, seeking only to have his name credited as the composer of "Stinky Britches". Chef's claim is substantiated by a 20‑year-old recording of Chef performing the song. The record company refuses, and furthermore hires Johnnie Cochran, who files a lawsuit against 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: This penultimate statement is a parody of Cochran's closing arguments in the O. J. Simpson murder case where he states to the jury "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit!" in reference to an earlier point in the trial when prosecutor Christopher Darden asked Simpson to try on a pair of bloody leather gloves found at the murder scene and the gloves turned out to be too small for Simpson to put on easily over latex surgical gloves Simpson put on just before. Similarly, in the episode, Cochran's defense is successful and the jury finds Chef guilty of "harassing a major record label", after which the judge sets his punishment as either a $2 million fine to be paid within 24 hours or, failing that, four years in prison (the judge initially sentences him to eight million years before being corrected by a court officer). Ultimately, a "Chef Aid" benefit concert is organized to raise money for Chef to hire Cochran for his own lawsuit against the record company. At the concert, Cochran experiences a change of heart and offers to represent Chef pro bono. He again successfully uses the Chewbacca defense, this time to defeat the record company and force them to acknowledge Chef's authorship of their song. In the second use of the Chewbacca defense, he ends by taking out a monkey puppet and shouting, "Here, look at the monkey. Look at the silly monkey!" causing a juror's head to explode. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chewbacca defense」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|