"Joseph Delaney - Brainchild" - читать интересную книгу автора (Delaney Joseph)

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, the court's going to take up some
preliminary matters for a few minutes. Meanwhile, I'll ask you all to go
with the marshal and be back here at 10:30. You'll be permitted to leave
the building but you must not discuss this case with anyone, not even with
one another." McGill rose and the jurors followed him out of the
courtroom. Schoonover was perplexed and felt left out of things.
Ruth explained. "I know it looks like a lot of foolishness to you now, but
it all has a reason. We've scored a couple of points already, whether you
know it or not."
"I must have missed them, Ruth. It looks to me as if they're ready to
hang me already and they don't even know what it's all about. Mr. Monte's
already got them worked up by telling them I don't think Adam's human.
Why didn't you do something?"
"That's one of the points we scored. You'll see. It's called a rabbit trail.
And don't worry about the jury. Juries are wishy-washy. Their minds flap
back and forth like tumbleweeds. You're only in trouble when the wind
stops blowing, and it isn't going to. Ah, there's Dr. Blatchley."
"What's he doing here? I thought he was our witness."
"He is, but Bob has a right to call him, too, and since he gets to put his
case on first he has that advantage over us, if it is an advantage.
Blatchley's programmed, you know that. I worked most of yesterday on
him. All this really means is that in effect the cross examination comes
first, then the direct."
"Ruthie, I hope you don't mind all these questions. It's just that I don't
... I never was that interested in law before. I don't understand all this
cross and direct stuff."
"It's simple, Delmar. Direct is questioning by the party who calls a
witness. He vouches for the witness's testimony. He's bound by it. The
other side attacks the witness's credibility by cross questions. The answers
don't bind him, ordinarily. He starts out with the presumption the witness
is a liar. Unless he adopts the witness as his own we can't comment to the
jury about unfavorable answers. That's why lawyers sometimes don't
object when the other side exceeds the scope of direct examination;
sometimes, if you know in advance what the answer will be, you can let it
go and then claim the other side adopted the witness. Understand?"
"No. Why'd the jury leave?"
"The judge is going to make sure Dr. Blatchley understands his Fifth
Amendment rights before he testifies. That's another piece of
showmanship on Monte's part. He knew the judge would deny his motion
to rule Blatchley hostile, so he'll try to rattle him by suggesting he could
face prosecution later."
"But Dr. Blatchley is hostile. At least, he'd better be."
"Of course he is, in layman's terms. But not legally; not until he
demonstrates such obvious prejudice against the prosecution that it's
unfair to require them to vouch for his testimony. What Monte really
wants is the right to lead him and then impeach him. If he gets a
hostile-witness ruling from the court, then he can. You can lead and
impeach on cross. You can't on direct."
 "Oh," said Schoonover. "I see." But he didn't really.