We forget our careful game plan. I have seen this done too often, and confess to having done it myself. Hew to your planned cross. Use the surefire stuff. Economy of motion is matched by parsimony of expression.
Lawyers think their privilege is to waste the jurors' time.
The jurors will get even . One evening in Umtata, South Africa, my friend Ken Frazier began teaching the trial advocacy program for students at the University of the Transkei. He started by asking each one to introduce himself or herself and to say a few words. I got here only today. I am just a black trial lawyer from Philadelphia, but I can't help noticing that most of you introduce yourselves timidly, tentatively.