Clarity, clarity, clarity

Several of the jurors in the Blagojevich trial were interviewed by Chicago Tribune reporters Bob Secter and Stacy St. Clair in last week's Tribune. The title of the piece says it all: "Blagojevich jury's advice: Keep it simple. Panel says prosecution's case, judge's jury instructions were too complicated." I'm not taking a poke at the prosecution or judge here. I'm sure that this was a hard case to organize and present, and I couldn't have done any better. But the article does a nice job of reminding us that as advocates  we're not going to persuade anybody of anything unless the information is organized in such a way that the reader or listener can easily grasp it.