The Trial of Tom Petters Day 18 was crowded with gawkers

I arrived early to the courthouse today, but there was already a 
crowd of spectators lining up to watch the Government and the Tom 
Petters's attorneys give their final arguments.

Each side had ninety minutes with a short rebuttal for the Government.

First Assistant U.S Attorney John Marti said Petters's associates who 
had pled guilty and testified against Petters were, using defense 
attorney Jon Hopeman's words "instruments of darkness". But, Marti 
reminded the jury that Petters had admitted in his testimony that 
they were his instruments.

Marti played more tapes so the jury could again hear Petters 
admitting PCI was "one big fraud". Marti explained  each of the 
twenty counts in the indictment and gave a summary of  the evidence.

At the end, Marti reminded the jury of the small investors who 
testified about losing nearly all their money in the scheme and said 
the jury could "fix it"  by convicting Tom Petters.

Petters's attorney Paul Enge talked about some of the evidence that 
could put a doubt in the Government's case, but there wasn't much. 
Enge filled up the rest of his statement with literary references 
from Samuel Becket to Gertrude Stein. Enge also mentioned Freud, 
Nietzsche, heuristics and cognitive dissonance.

Paul Enge's main point was that the jury should presume the defendant 
innocent until proven guilty as the Founding Fathers intended... Enge 
said that while jumping up and down for emphasis.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Rank gave a twenty minute rebuttal  in 
which he turned the jury's attention back to the tapes and Petters 
own words that the purchase orders were fake.

After lunch, Judge Kyle read the jury instructions. The fate of Tom 
Petters now rests with the jury.