This month Randy Sue Pollock reviews The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald by William Alsup.

Bill Wolf and Stephen E. Palmer take on Prepping Homicide Cases for the Engage & Exchange Series.

Featuring Mark Satawa, Steven Palmer, and Christopher Angles. 

The Dos and Don'ts of Lawyering presented by Cheryl D. Stein

This training program will aid those working to defend persons accused of homicide in drug-related overdose deaths. Each section of the program focuses on a different aspect of these cases. CLE is not available for this program.

Defense counsel can put the heat on a law enforcement officer witness through a persistent and thorough examination. What will intimidate the officer most is being questioned about how he did his job. A careful examination of the officer’s conduct can soften the law enforcement witness into giving defense counsel details she never imagined she could get, or it can make the officer hostile and show him to be unprofessional and prejudiced against the client. Defense attorney Mary Stillinger includes examples from real cases to illustrate.

Some lawyers refuse to write their cross-examinations because they believe written crosses will stifle their creativity. Larry Pozner disagrees. “We win most of our cases through crosses we planned, not crosses we lucked into,” he says. “And a scripted chapter frees our mind to listen more closely to the answers and judge when an answer has provided a launching pad for additional areas of cross.” Pozner has yet to hear a valid reason chapters of cross should not be written.

Adam Shlahet and Steven Epstein believe that during a trial the most important people in the room are sitting in the jury box. It is through this jury-focused lens that they discuss best practices for making objections. What is the basis of the objection? Is the objection cost-beneficial? Does the fact at issue bear on the case theory? Objections require defense counsel to make a split-second decision.

People who listen to the For the Defense podcast hear insights from and stories about the best criminal defense attorneys in the country. Why did David Oscar Markus start the podcast? Who are some of the memorable guests? This podcast serves as a tutorial for all criminal defense attorneys – young or old, state or federal – on what they should emulate in their own cases.  

What are negative questions? How can they cause confusion?

A witness seeking to evade will often answer with more than “I don’t know” because “I don’t know” implies “I am a bad witness.” Instead, the witness will often try to duck by inserting a reason he or she is not responsible for knowing the answers in that area.

How can defense counsel impeach witnesses when they exhibit behavior that is inconsistent with their stories?

Cross-examining children is a potential minefield because the cross-examiner must tread with care yet with a deliberate aim, all while maneuvering across a field that is unfairly stacked against the defense. Andres R. Guevara discusses the pitfalls and offers strategies for the successful cross-examination of a child.

“But” is a word that portends disappointment in some aspect of the prosecution’s case, and disappointment can lead to reasonable doubt.

This month Cuauhtemoc Ortega reviews A Defender’s Guide to Federal Evidence: A Trial Practice Handbook for Criminal Defense Attorneys by Rene L. Valladares.