Anatomy of a Trial: Attorney Tim Sledd Discusses Closing Arguments
Murder Sheet
MurderSheet
3.8 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We talk about a criminal trial as if it was a single event but of course that’s not entirely true. A trial is made up of multiple parts starting with jury selection and going all the way to the delivery of a verdict. Not all of these stages of a trial always get attention but each of them can be tremendously important. In fact, some attorneys claim that a trial can be won or lost in the jury selection process– and that, of course, happens before any case is made to that jury. That is why we have decided to launch a new occasional series we are calling Anatomy of A Trial. In each segment, we will talk to an experienced trial lawyer who will go in depth with us about a particular piece of a trial.
Our expert today is Tim Sledd. We will be talking with Tim about closing arguments. How important are these? How should defense attorneys and prosecutors approach constructing a closing argument? Who gets the final word?
Check out our upcoming book events and get links to buy tickets here: https://murdersheetpodcast.com/events
Order our book on Delphi here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/shadow-of-the-bridge-the-delphi-murders-and-the-dark-side-of-the-american-heartland-aine-cain/21866881?ean=9781639369232
Or here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Shadow-of-the-Bridge/Aine-Cain/9781639369232
Or here: https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Bridge-Murders-American-Heartland/dp/1639369236
Join our Patreon here! https://www.patreon.com/c/murdersheet
Support The Murder Sheet by buying a t-shirt here: https://www.murdersheetshop.com/
Check out more inclusive sizing and t-shirt and merchandising options here: https://themurdersheet.dashery.com/
Send tips to murdersheet@gmail.com.
The Murder Sheet is a production of Mystery Sheet LLC.
Áine, do you remember those moments right before we started The Murder Sheet?
Yep. I had some pretty severe doubts.
Oh yeah, I remember that. I remember a lot of “what if no one listens! That would be embarrassing!”
Also later on there was a lot of “I can’t quit my real job and become a podcaster!” Heck, you had some struggles … I remember you saying we should pull the plug while we hung around a parking lot eating burgers … this was during the COVID-19 pandemic, mind you.
There’s one brand that would’ve put some of our early worries to ease. And they can help all kinds of small business owners succeed. Shopify’s expertise, user-friendly platform, and helpful tools would’ve made our process a whole lot easier.
Shopify is the beating heart of your small business. It offers one stop where you can tackle inventory, payments, and analytics. Everything in one convenient, easy to access platform. It makes life so much easier. No more chaos. No more clicking through all these different sights. Run your business smoothly with Shopify.
Maybe you’re just getting started. Or wondering, what if people haven’t heard about my brand? Don’t worry. Shopify will find you customers. They help you kick off easy-to-run email and social media campaigns.
This one would’ve been huge for us — you basically have your own marketing team behind you. You can create and email and social media campaigns to meet your customers where they are.
And don’t worry about getting stuck. Shopify offers award-winning 24/7 customer support. They’re that good, and they’re there to help you make your company a big success.
Trust Shopify. Your own personal commerce expert in inventory, international shipping, returns, and more!
Start your business today with the industry’s best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing: Cha-Ching!
Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at SHOPIFY DOT COM SLASH msheet
Go to Shopify.com/msheet
That’s Shopify.com/msheet
Cha-Ching!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We talk about a criminal trial as if it was a single event, but of course that's not entirely true. |
| 0:05.6 | A trial is made up of multiple parts, starting with jury selection and going all the way to the delivery of a verdict. |
| 0:11.9 | Not all of these stages of a trial always get attention, but each of them can be tremendously important. |
| 0:18.1 | But if you're not an attorney, it can get confusing trying to understand |
| 0:21.3 | these stages of a trial and exactly why each is a crucial part of the process. That's why we |
| 0:27.2 | decided to launch a new occasional series we're calling anatomy of a trial. In each segment, |
| 0:32.9 | we'll talk to an experienced trial lawyer who will go in depth with us about a particular piece of a trial. |
| 0:39.2 | Our expert today is Tim Sled. He is the chief public defender in Indians Lawrence County. |
| 0:45.2 | He's also served as a judge and is the county's chief deputy prosecutor. He's a great guest. |
| 0:50.9 | We've had him on plenty of times and hope to have him on plenty of times in the future. |
| 0:54.8 | Today, Tim will be speaking to us about closing arguments in criminal trials. |
| 1:00.1 | What are prosecutors and defense attorneys allowed to say, and what are they barred from bringing up? |
| 1:05.4 | What techniques do lawyers use to stick the landing, so to speak? |
| 1:09.6 | And how important are closing arguments, really, |
| 1:12.3 | when it comes to convincing jurors? My name is Anya Kane. I'm a journalist. And I'm Kevin Greenlee. |
| 1:18.7 | I'm an attorney. And this is The Murder Sheet. We're a true crime podcast focused on original |
| 1:24.1 | reporting, interviews, and deep dives into murder cases. |
| 1:28.4 | We're the murder sheet. |
| 1:30.2 | And this is Anatomy of a Trial. |
| 1:32.7 | Attorney Tim Sled discusses closing arguments. |
| 2:22.3 | I'm going to... The obvious big Obvious, big broad question. |
| 2:23.4 | What is a closing argument? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from MurderSheet, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of MurderSheet and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

