Defending People

the tao of criminal defense trial lawyering

The One-Witness Rule

Mark Bennett | July 17, 2008

One question that prosecutors in Harris County are overly fond of asking jurors is this:

If we only present one witness, but based on that witness’s testimony you believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty, can you convict him?

The prosecutors then gleefully challenge, for cause, all of the jurors who say “no.”

It [...]