I wanted to ask you since you’re an attorney, what do you think about the cross examination so far? From my understanding, attorneys can take more liberties when asking questions during cross, is that right? It felt like she wasn’t pressing very hard on some issues that in my (uneducated) opinion were worth pointing out, and also, even though she asked yes or no questions she still let him go on and over explain everything - for instance she asked “you knew that the man had been in the house two other times, correct?” And he goes on and on about how he knew he had been there many times and that stuff was stolen and remembered the way the man reacted on the 11th yada yada. Is there any reason that she’s not stopping him or asking him to just reply yes or no? Also wondering why he’s not being challenged when he’s constantly saying “break in” and things like that.
Is it that maybe because she’s not a defence attorney she’s not as used to doing cross-examination? Is that a thing?
So, I will admit, I missed a lot of it yesterday because my family came home right around the time that she was doing her cross.
From what I did see, she made some good points and got him to flounder a bit. And from what I read on here, she was able to show that his training told him one thing but he did another on that day. During cross-examination, she is allowed to ask leading questions (basically questions where the answers are yes or no). A lot of what she is doing is going to strategy. Remember, she sees that jury everyday, which could be the reason that the confederate flag license plate wasn't shown in the pictures, and may be playing a bit to them.
My guess, and I'm not in her head, is that she's letting him give more of a narrative to that when she asks more pointed questions, she can catch him giving inconsistent testimony. If she really felt like his answers were harming her cross, she would tell him to just stick with the yes or no answer. As for the term break-in, I'm not sure why she is letting him consistently use it.
As a prosecutor, she is very much used to doing cross examination. Any trial that she has been a prosecutor on, she most likely conducted a cross of at least one defense witness.
Her cross examination is continuing this morning, so I expect that more important points will be made. It's never good to come across angry, so she will appear friendly. It's the questions themselves that matter less than the tone. Between this cross and the closing argument, I believe she is going to do an excellent job. But we will have to wait and see. I'll be able to watch the cross this morning as my family is at work/school and I'm working from home
