Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1884-10-03
ON THE WITNESS stan
4 Leading Louisville Grimm: La
yer Gives Some Points.
Law.
louisville Courier-Journal


''Gou can't get two witnesses > stick
up To- more than one lie in the t">ti-
muny.' remarked leading Criminal
lawyer the ether day, and for lis rca-
son no slirewd lawyer attempts } EN-
ploy perjury They may t. the
straightforward kind of a story st first.
but if there Is more than oneI in it
they will invariably weaken .ldcr a
sharp cr0>>-rXaniination. Ready Wittcd
witnesses can stick up To one lie. and in
this way an alibi can often I've .''!cc,',s-
fully established. For inSta,icc, if
Il witness WAS actually with the
prisoner ut an otiicc-hc can
tran>poSc the time and stick NJ II it,
That is, they might have been together
last week. and the witness NAV state in
his evidence that it was Yesterday. The
meeting actually occurred, and. if he is
very shrcw,i, you may examine and
cro>S-tNamnc linn Il, much as possible
without breaking down his testimony
He has simply tranSposrd the time, and
all he has TO do is To agree with the
other witnesses upon the date they are
to swear To. BrH if there had never
been such meeting one or another
would hr sure to get caught in the lie
no matter how we'll drilled he NAV have
been. They can't swear successfully to
more than one lie at Il time. In my
long practice at the bar have never
known this 10 fail.
Il he most dangerous witness tina. can
be put upon the stand is woman. The
reason /, that II is almost impossible
for her to distinguish between what She
has heard and what she really knows or
has seen. \ woman rarely teStiticS in It
case unless she is interested in some
way, and her feelings will unc0nsciously
but almost invariably influence her t,''-
timony. No matter how conscientious
they are, their testimony is more or less
colorcd. They feel SO much more
acutely than men that they are uncon
sciously influenced. When woman is
on the stand she sticks TO her story, and
in this way she makes II much better
witness than man.
THE most reliable witness, and the
best one every way, is IA boy of from II
to II years of age. He sees more than
any one else, and. as he generally has no
feeling in the matter, he tells only the
truth. His mind is perfectly clear,
and he may be cross examined as
much as you choose without his story
being shaken in the least. \ boy has
usually plenty of curiosity, and if IA
fight or any other difficulty comes up he
usually stops and listens to all that is 60
ing on. At this age his memory is
clearer and more rctentive than a mans
and he has no difficulty in separating
the truth from error \ better witness,
or another rs good, can not be found
Girls and young children are danger
Gus witnesses. Young girls, especially,
can easily be learned story, and they
will repeat it with parrot like accuracy
which can hardly be shaken. Then a
lawyer doesn't dare to be sharp with
them, as they have the sympathy of the
jury. Sometimes child has learned a
story which it will tell with such accur-
acy and apparent truthfulncss that it
would seem sin to doubt it. know
of a case where two little girls came near
swearing away their brother-in -law' :
life, and it was only by an accident that
their story was proved false. The mans
wife wanted to get rid of him, arc
they repeated the tale she told them like
parrots.