Cross-Examination Content: Think My Cousin Vinny

 

This and a following series of posts focus on the methodology for a winning cross-examination: THE FOUR Cs of CROSS-EXAMINATION and this one will rely on My Cousin Vinny to illustrate the lesson.

1st – CONTENT – how to select the content of your cross

2nd – CONSTRUCTIONS – how to construct the cross – form of the questions. Transitions. Sequencing.

3rd – CHARACTER – how to behave during cross so project fairness to the jury

4th – CONTROL – how to control the witness – particularly the evasive and runaway ones

In the last post explained that the primary purpose of cross is to gain concessions that bolster your case theory or undercut your opposing party’s case theory. Impeachment is only a secondary purpose. The goal is to capture the truth from the witness. If you visited the last post, you watched David Boies extract the truth from the opposing party’s key witness. 

If you take away nothing else from this article, remember to this question when you are thinking about CONTENT of your cross: What must the witness admit or stamp the answer – a lie, mistaken or ridiculous. The witness must give you the truth or suffer the consequence because it’s the truth. You can prove it by direct or circumstantial evidence or it just makes plain common sense. That’s what Boies did; he forced the witness to realize what the truth was and then the witness had to give it up. As the witness acknowledged, it was like a train wreck.

Now we can watch My Cousin Vinny orchestrate a train wreck using the methodology.

Vinny asked himself: What must this witness admit or stamp the answer either a lie, mistaken or ridiculous? And, you saw how the witness had to concede the truth.