{"id":409,"date":"2013-06-05T15:27:05","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T19:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/?p=409"},"modified":"2013-08-28T16:58:35","modified_gmt":"2013-08-28T20:58:35","slug":"all-the-worlds-a-stage-when-a-prosecution-becomes-a-media-circus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2013\/06\/05\/all-the-worlds-a-stage-when-a-prosecution-becomes-a-media-circus\/","title":{"rendered":"All the World’s a Stage: When a Prosecution becomes a Media Circus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Case Study in Criminal Law<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>May 14, 2011. Dominique Strauss-Kahn<\/a>, the director of the International Monetary Fund and front runner in the French presidential campaign, was handcuffed and led off an Air France flight as it sat on the tarmac at New York\u2019s Kennedy International Airport.\u00a0 <\/span>DSK\u2019s arrest and prosecution for the sexual assault of a maid at a Manhattan hotel created a media frenzy, not only in New York City, but throughout the world. The case was the subject of 150,000 headlines in the ten days following his arrest, and countless news outlets played footage and published photos of Strauss-Kahn\u2019s \u201cperp walk<\/a>.\u201d The perp walk in particular elicited outrage in France, where it is against the law to show images of celebrity defendants. \u00a0<\/span>As the summer wore on, onlookers became increasingly polarized about the case.\u00a0 <\/span>Either DSK was an innocent man railroaded by an overzealous law enforcement system and a shadowy political smear campaign, or he was a serial sexual predator who had forced himself on an illiterate immigrant housekeeper. \u00a0<\/span>At the center of this maelstrom was the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s office, led by Cyrus Vance, Jr.<\/a> For Vance, the DSK case was by far the \u201chottest potato\u201d his office had encountered in his relatively young tenure as DA.\u00a0 <\/span>Every legal movement, every statement by one of his staff, every rumor or leak was published and examined by the scandal-hungry public.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Harvard Law School professor Philip Heymann\u2019s new case study, \u201cDominique Strauss-Kahn and Cyrus Vance: Dilemmas in a High Profile Prosecution<\/a>,\u201d explores issues faced by prosecutors when the justice system becomes the center of a media circus.\u00a0 <\/span>How should district attorneys conduct prosecutions of famous or influential people who are accused of crimes? Is it possible to conduct a \u201cnormal\u201d investigation when the perpetrator is an international figure and when the case is followed so closely by the media? Can\u2014and should\u2014the DA ignore the pressure to come to a quick decision?\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

In the \u201cA\u201d case, students debate the pros and cons of the DA\u2019s bail decision: Should Vance ask the judge to deny bail to DSK, and, if so, what are the repercussions of that decision? This question triggers discussions on the best way to build an investigative strategy at the onset of a criminal case. Students are encouraged to develop investigational hypotheses to explain what occurred in DSK\u2019s hotel room that day, and what facts they would need to prove or disprove their theories. The \u201cB\u201d case takes place in August 2011, when Vance must decide whether or not to bring the case to trial. Students reevaluate their opinions from the \u201cA\u201d case discussion. They consider what Vance should do next and the political and legal repercussions of each possible action. They also explore the role of the DA: should the DA bring forward cases if the prosecutors are not convinced of guilt? At what point should the DA\u2019s office decide guilt or innocence, and at what point should a jury decide? The case initiates larger discussion on the nature of the U.S. prosecutorial system.<\/p>\n

To purchase this case study, see the <\/span>product page<\/span><\/a> on our website. Registered educators and trainers can receive free review copies of this case through the Case Studies website<\/a>. For more information, or to discuss how to adapt case studies for your academic or professional education needs, contact Lisa Brem, Case Studies Program manager, at <\/span>lbrem@law.harvard.edu<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Case Study in Criminal Law May 14, 2011. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the director of the International Monetary Fund and front runner in the French presidential campaign, was handcuffed and led off an Air France flight as it sat on the tarmac … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4538,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88580],"tags":[88573],"class_list":["post-409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-study-program-blog-posts","tag-criminal-law-case-study"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CR8M-6B","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":963,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2015\/04\/28\/can-we-have-justice-in-an-imperfect-world-dsk-case-study-shows-fractured-relationship-between-justice-and-justice-system\/","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":0},"title":"Can We Have Justice in an Imperfect World? DSK Case Study Shows Fractured Relationship between Justice and Justice System","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"April 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Product: \u201cCyrus Vance and Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Dilemmas in a High-Profile Prosecution\u201d HLS Professor Jeannie Suk repurposed a discussion-based case study, \u201cCyrus Vance and Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Dilemmas in a High-Profile Prosecution,\u201d to explore the disconnect between justice and the justice system in a foundational 1L course. In her two sections of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Professor Jeannie Suk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2015\/04\/10869.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":811,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/06\/18\/do-prosecutorial-tactics-optimize-justice-reconsidering-discretion-in-charging-and-plea-bargaining\/","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":1},"title":"Do Prosecutorial Tactics Optimize Justice? Reconsidering Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"June 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"New Product: \u201cProsecutorial Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining: The Aaron Swartz Case\u201d In January 2011, an Assistant United States Attorney in Massachusetts\u2019 Internet and Computer Crimes Unit was assigned a case from MIT. For months, a guest on the MIT computer network had been downloading much of the online\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Study Program Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Study Program Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-study-program-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Aaron_Swartz","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2014\/06\/Aaron_Swartz-500x333.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":828,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/07\/15\/3-new-teaching-notes-available-in-time-for-fall-classes\/","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":2},"title":"3 New Teaching Notes Available, In Time for Fall Classes","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"July 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking to teach decision making, leadership, copyright, or problem solving this fall? We just released three new teaching notes, free for educators, for-profit trainers, and staff at non-profit or educational institutions: Reputation, Credibility, and the Goldstone Report (A) and (B), a discussion-based case study from Professor Philip Heymann, teaches students\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Problem Solving Workshop Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Problem Solving Workshop Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/problem-solving-workshop-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Richard Goldstone","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2013\/05\/800px-P10107961-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":554,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2013\/09\/17\/the-boy-who-cried-balloon\/","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":3},"title":"The Boy Who Cried Balloon","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"September 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"New Product: Balloon Boy On October 15, 2009, Richard and Mayumi Heene called 911 in a panic. Their son Falcon had gone missing, as had a large metallic helium balloon housed in their backyard. Local and federal authorities conducted a highly publicized rescue effort for the \u201cUFO,\u201d but when the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Problem Solving Workshop Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Problem Solving Workshop Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/problem-solving-workshop-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":857,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/09\/23\/5-questions-with-professor-adriaan-lanni\/","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":4},"title":"5 Questions with Professor Adriaan Lanni","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"September 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Product: Prosecutorial Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining: The Aaron Swartz Case HLS Professor Adriaan Lanni came to us with a vision for her criminal adjudication class: teach students the ethics and discretion of prosecution. Rather than explain landmark examples of prosecutorial discretion herself, Professor Lanni wanted students to find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Study Program Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Study Program Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-study-program-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lanni","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2014\/09\/Lanni.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1099,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2016\/04\/05\/the-classroom-experience-prosecutorial-discretion-in-charging-and-plea-bargaining-the-aaron-swartz-case-a-and-the-battle-for-unocal-case-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":5},"title":"The Classroom Experience: Prosecutorial Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining: The Aaron Swartz Case (A) and The Battle for Unocal Case Studies","author":"Alec Villalpando","date":"April 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Post by Logan Sawyer, Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Harvard Law School \u201cThat class was awesome,\u201d and \u201cYou should definitely do that again next year,\u201d were the first things I heard from students after the two case studies I taught in two different classes, at two different institutions.\u00a0The classes were\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2016\/03\/Singer-4-1024x681.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2016\/03\/Singer-4-1024x681.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2016\/03\/Singer-4-1024x681.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4538"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":588,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions\/588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}