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Cross-examination better than sex

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Yesterday morning I had a witness in an ugly trial who admitted on direct as a government witness to testifying differently in the case case before. She did not mention on direct for the government that it was 80 pages worth of testimony in two hearings (detention and suppression) going to the heart of the case, and which thus came in as substantive evidence under F.R.E. 801(d)(1), having to admit lying at least 60 times under oath to the federal judge and in witness conferences with the AUSA and me. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Smelled like ... victory." Lt. Col. Kilgore, Apocalypse Now (1979). As I and others have been quoted in the past, for a trial lawyer, a cross on a prior contradictory statement under oath is better than sex...continue to full post

Full post as published by Law Of Criminal Defense on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).