Opinion ID: 337795
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Recess During Cross-Examination

Text: 2 During the cross-examination of the informant witness, who was obviously a key to the government's case, the district judge recessed until the following morning. At that time, the informant had been on the stand for three hours; the examination continued for one hour the next day. Smith believes that he was on the threshold of destroying the informant's credibility and that the recess allowed the government to counsel with the witness and to prepare him for the final period of the cross-examination. 3 The recess was called at 4:30 p. m. There is no explanation in the record for this other than that this was a normal time to suspend proceedings for the evening. Although the district judge, after the jury was released, made some strong statements as to how he felt about the credibility of the witness, we fail to see where an abuse of discretion has been demonstrated. Carter v. United States, 373 F.2d 911, 914 (9th Cir. 1967).