For lawyers, there's a lot more to representing a criminal defendant at trial than just the law.

Video: Word On The Street (5/11/07)

There are all kinds of tricks and strategies by some lawyers in court.

Take for example the recent trial of Mary Winkler. She was accused of murdering her minister husband but convicted of a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Did you notice how she was dressed as she sat at the courtroom defense table or on the witness chair?

One Nashville defense attorney watched the entire trial.

While on bond and working at a dry cleaning establishment, he said Winkler was dressed very nicely with her hair neatly combed, and she was wearing makeup.

But he said she looked different at her trial.

A lock of her hair was down in her face, she wore little or no makeup, and she seemed to dress in virtually the same clothes most days.

Winkler's dowdy appearance, he claims, was to make the jurors feel sorry for her.

That's just one of lawyers' strategies in court.

Trying to put the crime victim as the villain is another maneuver.

Some years ago, the courts allowed cigar smoking during trials.

The late great Nashville Attorney Jack Norman Sr. was a cigar smoker.

Before some important trials, he would stick a long hat-pin down the end of his cigar before lighting it.

As the prosecution's top witness testified crucial information, Norman's cigar's ashes grew longer and longer.

Some jurors ignored the testimony and were busy watching Norman's cigar, waiting for the ashes to fall.

Of course, they never did because of the hat-pin.

It's all part of the tricks of the trade.