Kayfabe in
the Courtroom
"Kayfabe" is an old
carny word referring to the code of silence around the tricks of the trade--you
never let a mark (customer) know the game is rigged.
Professional Wrestlers
adopted the phrase and, until the mid-eighties at least, it was verbotten for a
rassler to admit in public that the action in the ring was essentially fake.
Reality might occasionally slip into the squared circle (as "Stampede Wrestling
announcer Ed Waylon used to call it), but real wrestling is boring, so fantasy
reigns.
Most wrestling fans know
the game is rigged, but they are addicted nonetheless. It's like watching a
horror film: you know the mayhem on the screen isn't real, that the guy with the
bloody knife is probably a nice enough chap in real life, but when he emerges
from the shadows you gasp anyway.
Most jurors attending
criminal trials in Texas know the game is rigged. The court appointed defense
attorney is generally what wrestlers call a "Jobber", a guy who is paid good
money (though not a lot of it) to lose. The less effort the guy puts into
defending his client, the better the "Jobber's" bottom line at the end of the
day.
Jurors pretend they are
watching a fair fight. Having been seduced by media they know who to cheer for
and who is supposed to win. They do not see their rights are tied to the rights
that of the defendant. The live in denial of the fact that they may be the next
defendant.
