Cross-examination - Affecting The Outcome of Jury Trials

Affecting The Outcome of Jury Trials

Cross-examination is a key component in a trial. The opinions by a jury or judge are often changed during cross examination if doubt is cast on the witness. In other times a credible witness affirms the belief in their original statements or in some cases enhances the judge's or jury's belief. Though the closing argument is often considered the deciding moment of a trial, effective cross-examination wins trials. Typically during an attorney's closing argument they will repeat any admissions made by witnesses that favor their case. Indeed, in the United States, cross-examination is seen as a core part of the entire adversarial system of justice, in that it "is the principal means by which the believability of a witness and the truth of his testimony are tested." Another key component affecting a trial outcome is the jury selection, in which attorneys will attempt to include jurors from whom they feel they can get a favorable response or at the least unbiased fair decision. So while there are many factors affecting the outcome of a trial, the cross-examination of a witness will often have an impact on an open minded unbiased jury searching for the certainty of facts upon which to base their decision.

Read more about this topic:  Cross-examination

Famous quotes containing the words affecting the, affecting, outcome, jury and/or trials:

    I have an intense personal interest in making the use of American capital in the development of China an instrument for the promotion of the welfare of China, and an increase in her material prosperity without entanglements or creating embarrassment affecting the growth of her independent political power, and the preservation of her territorial integrity.
    William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    There is a higher law affecting our relation to pines as well as to men. A pine cut down, a dead pine, is no more a pine than a dead human carcass is a man.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    It is always the moralists who do the most harm. Abortion is the logical outcome of civilization, only the jungle gives birth and moulders away as nature decrees. Man plans.
    Max Frisch (1911–1991)

    A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.
    Clifford Irving (b. 1930)

    It is time to provide a smashing answer for those cynical men who say that a democracy cannot be honest, cannot be efficient.... We have in the darkest moments of our national trials retained our faith in our own ability to master our own destiny.
    Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)