Trey Gowdy opens up about the hidden toll of becoming a great prosecutor

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For Trey Gowdy, the best prosecutors don’t simply prove their case, they make a jury feel it themselves.

“The best prosecutors are the ones that can make the jury feel what the parents feel,” Gowdy said on the latest episode of the “Hang Out With Sean Hannity” podcast.

“And that’s what takes its toll. It wrecks you. It wrecks you,” he added.

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Gowdy, now a Fox News host, sat down with Hannity for a wide-ranging conversation reflecting on the skills and emotional toll behind a prosecutorial career in which he never lost a case.

For Gowdy, connecting with a jury meant first finding a way to understand the anguish of the people at the center of a case.

“Having children helps because you imagine, what if they were taken from you? Having a spouse helps,” Gowdy said. “But some folks, I think either are born with or can acquire this empathetic gene, where they can communicate that anguish and pain.”

But one case he recalled offered an especially haunting reminder of the grief that remains long after a prosecution ends.

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A split image of David Smith crying (left) and Susan Smith smirking (right) in 1994

He recalled regularly encountering David Smith, whose two young sons were drowned by their mother, Susan Smith, in a notorious 1994 South Carolina murder case.

“The father of those two boys worked at the grocery store where I shopped, Saturday mornings,” Gowdy said. “And I made a point of always speaking to him and never mentioning the case. We talked sports.”

“But if you want to see grief etched in someone’s face, it was etched in his,” he continued. “To lose your two sons because your wife decided that she wanted to have a different boyfriend.”

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The encounters with Smith offered Gowdy a firsthand glimpse of the anguish he says prosecutors must somehow convey to jurors while remaining composed enough to make their case.

“You’ve got to marshal the evidence, you’ve got to stay composed long enough to prevent it, and then this marriage of logic and passion is what closing argument is, this marriage, of moving people,” he added.

Gowdy’s full discussion with Hannity is available on iHeartRadio, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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