11Organizes the presentation of the defense case.Serves as a checklist for eliciting essential information from defense witnesses.Dictates the essential defense instructions and reveals inappropriate instructions.Identifies and prioritizes issues for closing argument.DON'T LET THEORY OBSCURE FACTS "[A]s Warner Oland, the Swedish pseudo-Oriental Charlie Chan, once said in one of his mostdelightfully anachronistic pseudo-Confucian sayings (Charlie Chan in Egypt, 1935): 'Theory like mist on eyeglasses. Obscure facts.'" Stephen Jay Gould, Bully for Brontosaurus (1991), p. 293.THEORY OF THE DEFENSE [CASE] INSTRUCTION Theory of the Defense [Case] Instruction: The theory of the defense [case], when properlyarticulated, requires minimal adjustments to become a theory of defense [case] instruction.EXAMPLE: THEORY OF DEFENSE [CASE] INSTRUCTION If you believe from the evidence that, when called into the gas station, GaryConaster, was shocked to discover his friend, Adam Burnette, had stabbed the gas stationattendant and was pointing a large knife at him, and terrified and confused, Gary, fearing for hislife, obeyed Adam's commands to take the money and give it to Adam, you must find, underthese circumstances, that Gary Conaster is NOT GUILTY of any crime because he was coerced,under threat of bodily harm, into participating in the robbery.DEFINITION OF THEME Theme - "an idea, ideal, or orienting principle that is dominant or persistent in a popular or tribal