Yesterday, court was in session until 20:00 local time in New York (01:00 BST) – nearly four hours longer than
usual. That’s because closing arguments from each party took a long time.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche spoke for about three hours, and then prosecutor
Joshua Steinglass spoke for nearly six.
Steinglass’s statement in particular seemed to
stretch on forever, until the judge gave him a deadline to wrap it up – or he would send the jury home for the night. Steinglass finished with just three minutes to spare.
Legal experts told the BBC that it was unusual for a closing argument to go
quite that long.
“Attorneys for both sides want to provide the jurors with ammunition
during deliberations to argue for or against a finding of guilt,” said
Anna Cominsky, a professor at New York Law School. Defence lawyers and prosecutors prepare closing arguments in meticulous detail, but have to calibrate them carefully for each case, she
said.
“Too short and you risk failing to properly make your arguments, too
long and you risk boring the jury,” she added.
“The sweet spot is very
hard to find.”