crime scenes, stories and truths

I've been a lay-judge at "Tingretten" in Oslo for a few years. Yesterday and today I attended my third time in the court as a lay-judge, trying to grasp what actually happened, or did not happen in a specific case. Tingretten is the first court instance in the Norwegian courts system. A full trial is conducted and the verdict is decided by a court judge assisted by two lay-judges. Naturally I can't tell you anything about the actual case or verdict, but my experiences as lay-judge have been extremely interesting. The procedures, the contrasts between the stories told by the witnesses, the rhetorics used, and the fact that these oral stories with often rather dubious connections to "the reality of what happened" constitute the background for the verdict.

Audun Kjus just defended his PhD with the thesis Sakens fakta - fortellerstrategier i straffesaker (The facts of the case - storystrategies in criminal cases, my translation of title).