fandomhigh | Anatomy of a Trial [Period 4, Class #4, 6-3]

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

anatomy of a trial

Anatomy of a Trial [Period 4, Class #4, 6-3]

Today, class was meeting in the Danger Room again, once more decorated to look like a court room. One of these days, Alex was just going to move her office hours here. Or possibly her apartment.

"Witnesses," Alex began, "are essential to winning a case. They're also people, which means they're temperamental, uncontrolled, and frustrating. But we're starting with the easy group, today.

"The witnesses we'll be calling will be your witnesses -- that is, ones you have specifically requested, in order to establish something about your case. If you're the prosecution, this might be the arresting officer. If you're the defense, this could be a psychiatrist who will speak to the defendant's state of mind. What you are trying to do is build the foundation of your case. Make an overt point -- this person was killed, or this harm was caused. If you can add some overtones to a more subtle point, all the better.

"Examining a witness that you called means you step very carefully. For one, you can't ask leading questions. So you would never say 'Did you see the defendant run out of the building?' You would ask, 'where were you?' Followed by, 'What time was this?' 'Did you notice anything unusual?' 'What is it you noticed?' And so forth.

"We'll assume, for the purposes of this exercise, that all of your witnesses are either neutral or agreeable to your side. It does happen, at times, that you need to examine a witness that you've called, but the person is deliberately antagonistic -- someone who might answer 'where were you?' with a vague-sounding, 'Around. I go lots of places. So?' In this case, you ask to have the witness be declared hostile, and from there you can ask a wider range of questions, the kind more suited to cross-examination.

"As I said, we're skipping that for now. Ask very deliberate questions -- but specific ones, if you can, because there is more danger in a witness saying too much than there is too little. So. Tell me who it is you want to call, to make your case. We'll talk a little about how to do it before I let you loose on your witnesses."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Like it just occurred to you at Entirely-Too-Late-O'Clock that you'd spaced on writing class and needed to do that before you crashed.

Hyuuga Hinata

Karla

Warren Worthington III

Squall Leonhart

Vance Astrovik

Write notes. Draw on some legal pads. Smell the furniture-polish scent of justice.

Hinata was rereading her notes about her case as she listened to Professor Cabot talk about witnesses.

... and mildly bemused at how much paper she was accumulating for this class. So many notes.

"So," Alex said, clasping her hands in front of herself. "Tell me who it is you'd like to call to the stand. If you're not sure, say that, and your classmates and I can offer suggestions. Once you've figured out who you're calling, then let's talk about what point you'd like to establish, and what the clearest path is to that point."

(as messy as you'd like!)

It was mildly distressing how fast a week went by so quickly and how under prepared she felt.

"A-Ano," Hinata said, after another look through her work on the case. "I was considering calling Jenna Herstein--Michelle is her daughter--whose house the party Mimi Callahan was at prior to the accident to verify how much drinking went on at the party."

She frowned thoughtfully. "I h-had considered the mechanic, Randy Selchen, as well but I am unsure of the advisability of that."

"Sounds good," Alex nodded. "Be careful opening that door, because the prosecution will get to cross-examine based on what comes out. Also be sure that she's testifying to things she actually knows -- if she was pouring drinks, or knows how much alcohol was in the house total, that's helpful, but someone saying 'Mimi didn't seem all that drunk to me' isn't as solid. She can, however, explain that it was a very sedate party and not something wild."

She considered, then smiled at Hinata. "It's not something you can say outright, but Jenna taking the stand for you carries a nice subtext that one of the victims' mothers doesn't blame the defendant. I'm impressed. Was that deliberate?"

Karla raised her hand. "The first person I'm going to call is Kenneth Bristow, the officer who pulled Mr. Fabian over about twelve miles away from the third fire. The most useful part of his testimony has been declared inadmissible, but he can at least place Fabian close to the scene of the crime. I'm also going to call the three head librarians: Carlos Newson, Miranda Fitzpatrick, and Danielle McCracken. Not only were they the people who spoke with Mr. Fabian regarding employment, they can also explain exactly what services the libraries offer and the extent of the damage done. It's one thing to say that three thousand dollars of books and equipment were lost, but another to say that the fire destroyed the children's section, several original manuscripts, and forced the library to stop offering certain services."

Karla smiled a little. "My last witness is Edward Baker, the Chief of the Huntwood Fire Department. Unlike the other two libraries, the Huntwood Library is in very close proximity to several other building in town. While Mr. Fabian had, perhaps, taken care to make sure his fires wouldn't harm anyone in the library, Mr. Baker can discuss how close the Huntwood fire came to spreading to other areas of town."

"What testimony was thrown out?" Alex asked. "That's frustrating, when you know something the jury should but can't. But it keeps the rest of the system fair. Make sure your witness doesn't sprint off on his own to throw in the information. Sometimes, witnesses think they're helping, when really, they just caused a mistrial. But an officer will know the ropes better than a civilian would."

She smiled. "A very nice list. Especially as the Chief puts a face to the fire department. These were real people, risking their lives to stop his fires. Is that why you put him last?"

"He'd opened the trunk without a warrant," Karla said, making a bit of a face. "Officer Bristow says that Mr. Fabian had said he could check it, Mr. Fabian says that he never gave permission, and in the end, anything he found in the trunk was declared inadmissible." Which was annoying, because there had been several items in there that could have been used for the fires, but now were impossible to examine or test.

"And as for Chief Baker, I hadn't thought of it that way," Karla admitted. "I was trying to build from 'see how much damage his fires caused' to 'see how much worse it could have been.' I don't want the jurors to get too fixated on the idea that the fires are less bad because they didn't hurt anyone."

Alex huffed. "He said, she said, and they managed to screw up your case. I wonder if Bristow coerced Fabian into agreeing."

They were unlikely to find out now, sad to say.

"Explain the full extent of the damages," Alex nodded. "I don't think it'd be amiss to use that note in your summation, if the cross-examining doesn't get there. You could find out how many firefighters are seriously injured, if not killed, during an average year."

Squall looked over his case file again, and the sparse notes he'd made.

"I'm going to call the woman who's in the hospital from the overdose," Squall decided. "And her attending physician." He flipped through a few papers, because he hadn't bothered to memorize any of the names. "Philomena Jackson, and Dr. Amy Alexandrova. And I'm going to need someone who can verify that some of these other patients don't actually have the diseases they're being treated for."

"Ms. Jackson herself can help with that," Alex offered, "though she might be worried about self-incrimination. If you offer her immunity or a reduced deal, she might be free to talk. She'd know that she didn't need that medication."

"Right," Squall agreed. "But one instance is a mistake, and more than one is a pattern. I'll need a doctor to look over the other patients, and check them against Dr. Jackass's records."

No, that wasn't exactly legal. Squall didn't know that, and didn't really care.

Edited 2010-06-04 02:21 (UTC)

"Medical records are confidential," Alex said. "Unless the others implicated volunteer, that's not going to be feasible. And they won't volunteer without deals in place."

"Then I give them deals," Squall immediately responded. After all, they were more or less victims, here. Weak-willed and stupid victims, but victims nonetheless.

Ping in. Mention somewhere in the narrative who it is that your student is going to be examining and/or what evidence they have. (Things like the swearing-in and "state your name for the record" and other such formalities, we can skip.) And then, an NPC will ping in to play out Your Witness. HOW EXCITING!

... Your Witness will resemble the people you talked to about Jury Duty. I reuse my NPC icons hokay.

Karla stepped forward and smiled at Officer Bristow, murmuring a quick thanks for his appearance today. His testimony comprised the majority of the evidence, though she did have a report from the investigation, pinpointing the approximate time the fire started.

Officer Bristow returned the nod as he was sworn in. He'd worn his uniform today ~~icon notwithstanding~~ both for the simple reason that it was his uniform and because it established him as a figure of authority and respect. Except for any jurors who didn't like cops, of course.

He sat down in the witness chair, calm and unconcerned. This was not his first trial. It was part of the job.

He gave his name for the record -- "Officer Kenneth Bristow" -- then waited for the ADA to begin her questions.

Karla nodded when she received the go-ahead and began her line of questioning. "Officer Bristow, police records indicate that you pulled Mr. Fabian over for speeding. Could you recount to us when and where that was?"

Bristow cleared his throat. "Yes. On the night in question, I was driving south on Route 42. I was just past the Greensburg exit when I spotted a car acting strange."

She is not an NPC!

Karla was there ~~and, unlike last week, so was her mun!~~ and going over her notes about who to call to the stand. She was happy to help people if they needed, though.

And totes not an NPC.

She's an NPC on the weekends, to make ends meet. SHH DUN TELL.

Excuse the punchy. Am tired.

Also, someone requested links back to previous weeks, which is a v. good idea that I hadn't thought of earlier, SO!

HINATA: voir dire (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2468632.html?thread=160285208#t160285208) • discussion (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2476807.html?thread=161289991#t161289991) • opening (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2484400.html?thread=161168048#t161168048) • feedback (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2484400.html?thread=161168304#t161168304)

KARLA: voir dire (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2468632.html?thread=160285464#t160285464) • discussion (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2476807.html?thread=160836103#t160836103)

SQUALL: voir dire (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2468632.html?thread=160285720#t160285720) • discussion (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2476807.html?thread=160857863#t160857863) • opening (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2484400.html?thread=161169072#t161169072) • feedback (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2484400.html?thread=161169328#t161169328)

VANCE: voir dire (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2468632.html?thread=160285976#t160285976)

WARREN: voir dire (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2468632.html?thread=160286232#t160286232)

And for the sake of OCD-completeness:

ALEX CABOT: voir dire (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2468632.html?thread=160282136#t160282136) • discussion (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2476807.html?thread=160827911#t160827911) • opening (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/2484400.html?thread=161166768#t161166768)

And, lastly, handwaving like a mofo is always, always okay. Do not think that just because I get all YAY DO STUFF that you have to, zomg.

SLEEP TIME. Will answer pings when I rejoin the land of the living.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Anatomy of a Trial [Period 4, Class #4, 6-3]

Sign In - ANAT04

Re: Sign In - ANAT04

Re: Sign In - ANAT04

Re: Sign In - ANAT04

Re: Sign In - ANAT04

Re: Sign In - ANAT04

During the Lecture - ANAT04

Re: During the Lecture - ANAT04

Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Re: Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Re: Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Re: Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Re: Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Re: Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Re: Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Re: Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Re: Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Re: Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Re: Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Re: Discussion: Examining a Witness - ANAT04

Activity: Examining Your Witnesses - ANAT04

Re: Activity: Examining Your Witnesses - ANAT04

Re: Activity: Examining Your Witnesses - ANAT04

Re: Activity: Examining Your Witnesses - ANAT04

Re: Activity: Examining Your Witnesses - ANAT04

Talk to Karla - ANAT04

Re: Talk to Karla - ANAT04

Talk to Alex - ANAT04

OOC - ANAT04