A Prosecutor’s Voir Dire Advantage: The Primacy & Recency Effect

In Ohio, the prosecuting attorney in a DUI/OVI trial gets to make the first presentation in voir dire, has the first opportunity to do opening and closing, and also has a rebuttal that follows the Defendant's closing argument.  Why is this a big advantage?Psychologists tell us that there is the tendency for the first items presented in a series to be remembered better or more easily, or for them to be more influential than those presented later in the series. If you hear a long list of words, it is more likely that you will remember the words you heard first...