Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | May 15, 2009
One of the common questions asked on Texas criminal lawyers’ listervs is, “does anyone have a voir dire for a … case they could share with me?” (I’m reliably informed that prosecutors do the same amongst themselves.)
I have a friend—we’ll call him “Bill Bomble”—who had some experience in show business before becoming a prosecutor. Bill [...]
Mark Bennett | January 23, 2009
Elliott Wilcox at Trial Theatre (who could teach even John Bradley lessons on self-aggrandizement as a prosecutor) on the outspoken juror giving answers unfavorable to your client’s case:
You do NOT want them sitting in judgment of your client. They hate you, your client, or your case, and you don’t want them on your jury. In [...]
Mark Bennett | May 13, 2008
Notes I wrote during a federal judge’s voir dire a few months ago:
A judge’s voir dire is calculated to get jurors to promise to follow the law while a lawyer’s voir dire is calculated to find those who might have difficulty following the law.
A judge’s voir dire is calculated to get jurors to agree with [...]
Mark Bennett | April 22, 2008
The title of this post is, according to Terry MacCarthy (buy the cross-examination CDs!), the criminal defense lawyer’s credo. I had always thought of it as descriptive — the way we are — rather than prescriptive — the way we should be. We should be prepared, shouldn’t we?
Yes and no. There are things we can [...]
