Public Defense

Treading no new ground, the court reminds us that a lay person can give opinion testimony if it is both based on his first-hand perceptions and rationally derived from them.

Here, a cooperating witness in a fraud case was permitted to describe several conversations that he had with the defendant, and explain what he thought certain of the defendant?s comments meant. There was a solid foundation for the testimony - the witness had known the defendant for years - and the witness did not ?speculate about the general knowledge or intent? of the defendant. Rather, his testimony was limited to discrete matters.

Full post as published by Second Circuit Blog on October 27, 2007 (boomark / email).