The Volokh Conspiracy - <i>Godfather</i> and the Law:

From U.S. v. Kincannon (7th Cir.):

The government's closing argument came next, during which the prosecutor made an analogy to an Academy-Award-winning movie: The Godfather. Recounting a pivotal scene where the director simultaneously presented assassinations orchestrated by the protagonist, Michael Corleone, the prosecutor explained that he, like the movie's director, would attempt to seamlessly tell the "story of what happened" in this case....

Kincannon ... argues, for the first time on appeal, that the prosecutor inflamed the passions of the jury, rendering the trial unfair, by referring in closing argument to The Godfather ....

The prosecutor's reference to The Godfather does not approach impropriety. It would be one thing if the government compared Kincannon to Michael Corleone, an organized crime kingpin responsible for murders and a whole host of other criminal activity. Such an analogy would be utterly unmoored from the record, which is probably why the government made no such connection. It was not Corleone's criminality, but Francis Ford Coppola's direction that was at the heart of the prosecutor's closing remarks. The prosecutor alluded to the pivotal point in the movie where Corleone attends his godchild's christening. Coppola cuts to various scenes of assassinations orchestrated by Corleone as a priest dubbed him the child's godfather. The poetic implication is that the murders, like the priest's liturgy, made Michael the godfather of the Corleone crime family. As the prosecutor said, "[n]ow that is how you present events that occur simultaneously in a movie so the viewer can understand it very easily." We agree, as did the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who nominated Coppola for an Oscar for best director. [Footnote: In an upset along the lines 2 of the 2009 Kentucky Derby win by Mine That Bird, the 1972 Oscar went to Bob Fosse (for Cabaret) rather than Coppola.] The prosecutor explained to the jury that he would try to do orally what Coppola did in his film — that is, tie together the events that occurred during the two controlled buys into one seamless story. To do so as eloquently as Coppola is a tall task, but there is certainly nothing improper about the attempt.

An interesting fact about the case, from the start of the opinion, "At 77 years old, James Kincannon makes for an unlikely methamphetamine dealer. But looks can be deceiving." And from later on, "Kincannon was in his fifties when his criminal record started and days away from his 73rd birthday when he was last released from prison after being popped for distributing drugs."

	[Eugene Volokh, June 18, 2009 at 1:45pm] Trackbacks Godfather and the Law: From U.S. v. Kincannon (7th Cir.): The government's closing argument came next, during which the prosecutor made an analogy to an Academy-Award-winning movie: The Godfather. Recounting a pivotal scene where the director simultaneously presented assassinations orchestrated by the protagonist, Michael Corleone, the prosecutor explained that he, like the movie's director, would attempt to seamlessly tell the "story of what happened" in this case.... Kincannon ... argues, for the first time on appeal, that the prosecutor inflamed the passions of the jury, rendering the trial unfair, by referring in closing argument to The Godfather .... The prosecutor's reference to The Godfather does not approach impropriety. It would be one thing if the government compared Kincannon to Michael Corleone, an organized crime kingpin responsible for murders and a whole host of other criminal activity. Such an analogy would be utterly unmoored from the record, which is probably why the government made no such connection. It was not Corleone's criminality, but Francis Ford Coppola's direction that was at the heart of the prosecutor's closing remarks. The prosecutor alluded to the pivotal point in the movie where Corleone attends his godchild's christening. Coppola cuts to various scenes of assassinations orchestrated by Corleone as a priest dubbed him the child's godfather. The poetic implication is that the murders, like the priest's liturgy, made Michael the godfather of the Corleone crime family. As the prosecutor said, "[n]ow that is how you present events that occur simultaneously in a movie so the viewer can understand it very easily." We agree, as did the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who nominated Coppola for an Oscar for best director. [Footnote: In an upset along the lines 2 of the 2009 Kentucky Derby win by Mine That Bird, the 1972 Oscar went to Bob Fosse (for Cabaret) rather than Coppola.] The prosecutor explained to the jury that he would try to do orally what Coppola did in his film — that is, tie together the events that occurred during the two controlled buys into one seamless story. To do so as eloquently as Coppola is a tall task, but there is certainly nothing improper about the attempt. An interesting fact about the case, from the start of the opinion, "At 77 years old, James Kincannon makes for an unlikely methamphetamine dealer. But looks can be deceiving." And from later on, "Kincannon was in his fifties when his criminal record started and days away from his 73rd birthday when he was last released from prison after being popped for distributing drugs."