Legal Research

"Trick Questions"

This post was written by Mark Bennett: "It doesn't matter who asks them--defense lawyers, prosecutors, cops--or whom they are asked--witnesses, the jurors themselves, defendants--jurors don't like trick questions. Getting caught asking a trick question lessens the questioner's credibility.

...Defense lawyers sometimes, in desperation, ask witnesses trick questions. Because if--as occasionally happens--there is no way the facts support any truth that helps the accused, we have to do something to stir up doubt. (I don't think I'm giving away any trade secrets here.) Jurors don't like trick questions, and when they catch you asking one (which they usually do) they're unimpressed.

Prosecutors almost always ask potential jurors trick questions..."

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Source: Defending People, 2 July 2010. © 2010 Defending People, reproduced with permission of the author

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on July 13, 2010 (boomark / email).