Prosecution Statement on Kwame

Kym L. Worthy's speech displays concrete reasoning behind the prosecution of Mayor Kwame. She uses two rhetorical strategies to reveal a point that will be talked about later. These two strategies are pathos and ethos. Worthy starts off her speech by displaying the high level of character and morale herself and her team possessed while making the investigation. This helps to validate her words and causes her audience to believe more of what she says. Worthy does this by saying the investigation has been unbiased and open-minded. She speaks of long hours put in to investigating whether Kwame is guilty or not, all of this with "careful, deliberate, thoughtful, and analytical" determination. She is very smart in declaring all of this at the start of the speech. This use of ethos allows the audience to listen to the rest of the speech knowing in their minds that what Worthy is saying is genuine and viable. Further along in the prosecution, Kym appeals to the audience by use of ethos once more. She lists the "fundamental principles of the justice system" and says how important they are in this case. By listing these, Kym helps the audience to understand how Kwame has displayed none of these characteristics throughout the past few months. It shows the audience how little integrity and character our Mayor possesses. “Even children understand that lying is wrong." This statement is sort of a slap in the face towards Kwame. Worthy compares Kwame to a child, implying that Kwame (a grown man) has no problem lying, but a child (not a grown man) knows full well that lying is wrong.

Kym also uses pathos to her favor in this speech. She appeals to the audience’s emotions by stating a few of the consequences that have occurred as a result of Kwame's scandal. Kym reveals how the policemen's lives have been changed, their reputations ruined, and all because they chose to tell the truth. This makes the audience feel bad for the officers, mere victims in Kwame's crime. In addition to feeling remorse towards the officers, this may cause a feeling of anger towards Kwame for having no regard towards the welfare of these policemen. A feeling of resentment is also established when Worthy talks about the betrayal and destruction of the public's trust. Kwame lied about this scandal, so how is the public supposed to believe anything that he says from now on? The issue of public money - also destroyed - adds to the whole mess. Worthy discusses all of this in one paragraph in an attempt to enhance the public's feeling of dislike towards Kwame.

These rhetorical strategies previously discussed all contribute in revealing an underlying point in this speech. Worthy talks a lot about the importance of witnesses being truthful, no matter the cost. She also says how witnesses take an oath saying that they will tell the truth, and nothing but it. These statements allude to Kwame. Kym is essentially saying that Kwame is no exception to obeying the law. He lied in office about his scandal and should not be treated any differently because of his political status.