And if they voted to convict me, they'd be practically cinching the noose around their own...

Reidenschneider:
Ladies and gentlemen, members of the jury, citizens of Santa Rosa, we've just heard from the district attorney a rather lurid description of a truly despicable man. Ed Crane:
[voice-over]
I had to hand it to him. He tossed a lot of sand in their eyes. He talked about how I'd lost my place in the universe. How I was too ordinary to be the criminal mastermind the D.A. made me out to be, how there was some greater scheme at work that the state had yet to unravel. And he threw in some of the old truth stuff he hadn't had the chance to trot out for Doris. Reidenschneider:
One may at first look at these lines and see only the chaos of a work of modern art. Ed Crane:
He told them to look at me, look at me close. That the closer they looked, the less sense it would all make. Reidenschneider:
Look closely at him. This human, this barber. Ed Crane:
That I wasn't the kind of guy to kill a guy, that I was the barber, for Christ's sake. I was just like them, an ordinary man. Guilty of living in a world that had no place for me, yeah. Guilty of wanting to be a dry cleaner, sure. But not of murder. Reidenschneider:
But most specifically, this is a barber's dilemma. For he is modern man. Ed Crane:
He said I was modern man. Reidenschneider:
He is your reflection. Ed Crane:
And if they voted to convict me, they'd be practically cinching the noose around their own necks. He told them to look not at the facts, but at the meaning of the facts. And then he said the facts had no meaning. It was a pretty good speech. Even had me going, until Frankie interrupted it