Tragodia 1 - Vanessa Place

The goal of a statement of facts is not to put forward an argument, but rather to present factual information in clear understandable way. Many lawyers may make implicit arguments in a statement of facts, to paint someone in a favorable light, or to dismiss their reliability. Tragodia is composed of the 3 parts of an appellate brief: Statement of Facts, which sets forth, in narrative form, the evidence of the crime as presented at trial; Statement of the Case, which sets forth the procedural history of the case; and Argument, which are the claims of error and (for the defense) the arguments for reversing the judgment. Place's Statement of Facts project involves reproducing Statements of Facts from her appellate briefs as poetry, eliminating specific information as necessary to protect people's identities. By copying her briefs, Place does not violate ethical standards or codes of conduct: appellate briefs are matters of public record and can be read by anyone, as are the transcripts of the trials themselves.