The trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is set to begin on Monday. He denies the charges of sex trafficking, racketeering with conspiracy and transportation for prostitution. So what should we expect at the start?Criminal defence attorney Shaun Kent explains how lawyers for the prosecution and defence will be making their opening statements as persuasive as possible.Veteran sketch artist Jane Rosenberg shares her four decades of courtroom experience with presenter Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty. She will be in court most days, drawing sketches of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs for the world to see.The Diddy on Trial podcast is here to investigate the rumours, confront the theories, and give you the answers that you need.We also want YOU to be part of the conversation. Have you any burning questions about the cases or the upcoming trial? Heard a theory that doesn’t sit right with you? Get in touch now via WhatsApp: 0330 123 555 1.Presenter: Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Series producer: Laura Jones Sound design: Richard Hannaford Senior digital producer: Matthew Pintus Video producer: Daniel Raza Production coordinator: Hattie Valentine Editor: Clare FordhamCommissioning editor: Rhian Roberts Assistant commissioner: Will Drysdale Commissioning producer: Adam Eland Commissioning assistant producer: Rechmial Miller
Chapter 1: What is the trial about?
BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. Hello and welcome back to Diddy on Trial from BBC Sounds with me, Anushka Matandadauti. The trial is set to start in four days, and this week, inside the court in the Southern District of New York, the group of people responsible for making a decision about whether Diddy is guilty or not are being selected.
Reminder, Diddy is accused of sex trafficking, transportation for prostitution, and RICO. If convicted, he could end up spending the rest of his life behind bars. But he has consistently denied all the allegations. Soon, it will be the jury's turn to see all the evidence, hear weeks of testimony, witness careful cross-examinations, and finally... deliberate and decide.
But before that, the first thing they will hear is opening statements from the prosecution and the defence. So if first impressions are everything, they better get this right. Joining me today to give us the recipe for the best opening statements is our criminal defence attorney, Sean Kent. Hi, Sean.
Chapter 2: What makes a terrible opening statement?
Hey, how are you doing?
I'm good. I mean, I spoke to you last night. I didn't realize this was your complete area of expertise and you teach other lawyers how to write opening and closing statements. First of all, before we get into the recipe for a great one, what makes a terrible opening statement?
Length, if you go entirely too long, and we always tell lawyers, if you go way too long and you bore the jury, because don't forget, the jury are just people. If you've ever been watching a movie or anything about legal shows, they can get to their point very succinctly and very quickly, and the jury's expecting the same thing.
An opening statement is just your opportunity from the prosecution standpoint to say, this is what we intend on proving. The defense standpoint is really it's sort of like a handshake. If you ever walked into a club or walked into a bar the first time you've met somebody, it's can I make you like me in a very short, quick period of time? And so that's really the point.
Prosecution is trying to say this is why we're going to win. Defense is trying to say this is why you should like me and listen.
So does the defense need to make it a bit more emotional, emotional?
One hundred percent. Like one of the things that people don't understand is if you've ever been in an argument with a loved one, the person who gets the first word and the person who gets the last word in an argument, some people always assume they win. The government gets the first word in the trial and in the federal trial, they get the last word.
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Chapter 3: How should defense attorneys engage the jury?
So you can imagine if they're going first and they're going last, if you are boring and uninspiring in the middle, the jury checks out. They are just not listening anymore because the government's getting the last word. So I always say the defense has got to be much more entertaining, much more flamboyant, and make that jury listen.
How much are you allowed to I'm searching for a better way of saying trash talk, but trash talk the other side.
You can do it significantly more in closing arguments because a closing argument is just that it is. I'm going to tell you everything. I'm going to tell you why that guy is wrong. You know, saying, look, guys, everything they said is a load of bull. And let me tell you why. Let me tell you all the awful stuff that the United States of America is about to do during this trial.
That's the point of opening. You're trying to get that jury on your side, believe it or not, just to listen.
So other than rambling on being a key mistake, what are some of the most common mistakes that people make with opening statements?
You'll be shocked. The biggest one I find are people relying on notes. And you say, oh, why would you say, why would they not have notes? The example I give when we teach is I ask, I'll go in a group of people and I say, how many of you are married? Hands raised. And I said, how many of you, when you propose or got proposed to, your significant other used notes? And everybody's hands down.
I'm like, well, why didn't they use notes? And everybody will say the same thing. Well, because it was an important day to me. And I said, exactly. If this is the most important day of your life, you don't need notes because you believe in this scenario. The same respect, if a defense attorney is reading from notes, he's telling the jury, I don't believe in this case. I'm just reading my notes.
And you can't make sustained eye contact. If it's not too long and it's about 30 minutes and this is your passion, this is how you feel about your client, then you don't need notes. You're telling a story to somebody. So that's the biggest one is I see way too much reliance on notes. And you don't need notes if you believe in this person.
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Chapter 4: What common mistakes do lawyers make in opening statements?
So then in this case, a lot of Diddy's freedom, I guess, might be riding on his lawyer's abilities to emote.
Absolutely. Act in some cases. Absolutely. It is 100%. If they like them, if they believe in them, if they are listening to them, then they're going to give the client a benefit of a doubt. You understand? If the jury hates the lawyer and thinks the lawyer is a jackass and they're not going to listen and they start...
doing their hands like this because they're saying stuff that they cannot believe in, then all of a sudden, they don't like your client.
You mentioned, obviously, there are visible tells, body language for the jury, who's engaging, who's not. I mean, some people might get upset. I don't know. Do you have somebody watching the jury and going, well, number three did this and number four did that?
You are so right on that. And that's why a lot of times most trials, anytime we try a case, you have what's called a first chair and a second chair. You probably have seen that in the filings. He is the first chair of the case. All the first chair does is they sit in the first spot. The second chair lawyer or the paralegals behind them are watching the jury.
And at the end of the day, they're saying, look, you remember the firefighter on the first row? He didn't like when you insulted Donald Trump. He's clearly a conservative and you went too far. Or the woman in the third row. Those are the things that we are doing. And good lawyers have people watching all of these things.
So I'm a bit nervous for this, actually, because with all that being said, I've tried to come up with four points for the prosecution and defense that would potentially be added to their opening statements. This is based on stuff that they've said in filings, based on stuff that they've said in statements, based on public comments that they've made. Right.
So I'm not coming up with any of this myself. Sean, go easy on me. I'll do the... I will not.
No.
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Chapter 5: What are key points for the prosecution's opening statement?
I can see why they pay you the big bucks, Sean.
That's the rumor. Yeah.
I'll do the defence. Number one, there's been a media circus, a complete media circus around this man. It's been trialled by the public. I want you to forget everything that you've read and focus on what is actually very limited evidence. That is the first point. Number two, he admits that he had toxic relationships, but these relationships were built on consent, not coercion.
Number three, at the end of the day, he's a dedicated father, a successful businessman, a black entrepreneur, a pillar in the community. And seeing his reputation get torn apart has been really painful for him and his family. Number four, you wouldn't usually hear from the defendant, but Diddy has nothing to hide, so he will be taking the stand. Good? Bad? How do you feel about that?
I love one and three. I hate two and four. And let me tell you why. One and three are flawless. And that's what a good defense attorney will do because they'll come out there and they'll specifically, we call it the eight mile defense. Have you ever watched eight mile with Eminem at the penultimate scene? He comes out and he's like, tell these people something you don't know about me.
And so that's where they might own is like, let me tell you about this guy. Let me tell you about Sean Combs, not Diddy, but Sean. Sean loves his children. He loves his community. And now he's find himself face against the awesome power of the United States of America. Let me say this again.
The United States of America with all their power, all their money, all their influence are going after Sean. Imagine if you will, you find yourself with the might of the United States of America coming against you. It's hard to fight. And that's what we're going to do together. I'm not going to sit here and tell you he's a perfect human being because he's not.
And we all have our mistakes that we've made in our life. Now, the United States of America is going to do everything. And what you're doing by saying United States is you want to make sure everyone knows it's the U.S. versus him. It's the U.S. versus him. It's the U.S. versus him. And so you go that far.
Now, we do not usually as defense attorneys, we try our darndest not to get into the evidence. Remember our whole point in our opening statement, what you did in number two. was do what the prosecution does. The evidence will show this. We're not talking about this. We're talking about, let me tell you about Sean. Let me tell you about how good of a guy he is.
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Chapter 6: How can the defense counter the prosecution's claims?
Chapter 7: Why is body language important in a trial?
Not only can they, they 100 percent will. But generally, it's like this is what happened. This is what and they can't say this is a fact. Remember, they can say this is what we believe the evidence will show and what we will prove. But go ahead. Let's hear Madam Prosecutor.
Right. OK. Number one, this man had absolute power, more power than the average US citizen will ever have. He had teams of people dedicated to getting him anything he wanted. And he abused this. He thought no one would stand up to him. So that would be number one, I guess, relating to the Rico charge. Number two, he...
He went on social media and protested his innocence and said that he'd never done any of the things that he was accused of. And then we all later saw evidence that he had in the video of him assaulting Cassie, which you are going to see or has been admitted into this trial.
Number three, talking about the bravery of the victims, how difficult it is to testify, what they've got on the line, how this is going to affect them for the rest of their lives.
Number four, I think they're going to tell you, as in the defense, are going to tell you that he's a father, he's a successful black man, that he's done a lot for his community, but that doesn't preclude him from also being all of these other things. How is that? OK. Three of four.
I like the first three. The fourth one, even though it's good, I would say that for closing argument, because this is what they've showed you. And just because he's a good person doesn't mean good people don't commit crimes. And we have showed you evidence that he will. Two, prosecutors will say, we believe the evidence will show, okay?
Because remember at opening statement, no evidence has come in yet. So they cannot say this happened, this happened. Even though we all know it, they will say, you know, through the course of this trial, what we are gonna do is we're gonna present you evidence of the following. And let me tell you who Mr. Combs is. And this is what we believe the evidence will show. We will show you a video.
We will do this. And they'll be very methodical in that opening statement. And then they'll go through the law because they want to make sure the jury understands. Mr. Combs is accused of RICO. And they probably won't call him Mr. Combs. They'll probably call him the defendant. And that's a lot of times what the prosecution does. They'll say the defendant is accused of the following.
And they will be very methodical and go through it.
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Chapter 8: What strategies should Diddy's defense attorney use?
Now, we've seen some of those sketches of Diddy already. Today, we have an absolute courtroom sketch legend with us, Jane Rosenberg. Hi, Jane. Hi, how are you? I'm good, thank you. Jane, how long have you been doing this? Since 1980, so what is that, 45 years? And what are some of the big names that you've covered that we might know?
John Gotti, Glenn Maxwell, Trump trials, Harvey Weinstein, everything that you can think of, I probably was there. How did you end up getting into this? I was always an artist. I loved drawing people. I was a struggling artist. After college, I did portraits. I did whatever I could for it to earn a dollar. I drew on the sidewalks with a hat out, did copies of Vermeer and Rembrandt.
And then I saw another courtroom artist do a lecture. at the Society of Illustrators. And I thought, oh, I would love to do that. So I started to go to court and practice. I asked the court officers, where do the artists sit? What do they bring? I asked so many questions. They finally said, okay, come next week. We'll let you sit with the other artists.
I did my sketch and there were only two other artists that I thought, ugh, I really should try to sell this. So I called NBC and said, come on in, let's see what you've got. And that's how it started.
You've just listed off a bunch of names there that are household names, obviously Donald Trump being at the top of that list, Ghislaine Maxwell, now P. Diddy. We rely on you to show us what those big household names are looking like as they're going through these huge court procedures. What makes a good court sketch?
I don't know. If I've captured the energy that's happening and I happen to, if I have more time, I usually do better work. The initial sketches I do of somebody, you might not have enough time because an arraignment is really quick. It could be just five minutes or less for an arraignment.
But then as a trial, there are pre-trial hearings that go on longer and it depends where I'm sitting and what my view is and how much time I have. That's what I have to deal with.
What makes a bad one? Do you ever look at other people's and go, God, that's not it?
At other people's, how about my own? I still got myself a lot. I go, oh God. And I try to fix it up for myself because everybody sends it out. You all see my bad ones. Too bad on me. So it's out there and I can't change what you see, but I can try to like struggle myself and go, oh, if only I had made his nose shorter or whatever. It's hard to get that to work out right from the start.
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