Opinion ID: 2196771
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Questioning

Text: The prosecutor began his cross-examination for bias by eliciting the fact that several (like 6 or 7) of Aull's friends in the Barry Farms neighborhood had been killed. [1] Defense counsel objected to this area of questioning on relevance grounds. The trial court overruled the objection, deeming the questioning simply essential bias cross-examination because it bore on why Aull might not want to incriminate his friend Clayborne. [2] The prosecutor then asked Aull, And yet you're not able to say who the killers were in any of those cases, are you? Defense counsel immediately objected to this question, the court sustained the objection, and Aull did not answer it. [3] The prosecutor next asked Aull about the occasions on which he himself had been shot. Defense counsel objected to this examination, again on relevance grounds, but the trial court ruled that it was relevant (without explaining why). The court accordingly permitted the prosecutor to elicit that Aull was shot in his shoulder in November of 1995 and in his hip or thigh in January of 1996, and that one of these incidents occurred in Barry Farms and both occurred in Southeast Washington, D.C. The prosecutor then proceeded with the following examination, to which defense counsel did not object: Q. And you're not able to, to say who did either of those shootings, are you? A. No, sir. Q. And you realized that if you did see who did that, you did tell the police you'd have to go to court on it, don't you? A. Yes. Q. But you don't have to go to court on anybody for either of those cases because you say you didn't see who did it, right? A. Right. The prosecutor moved on to ask a series of questions, not challenged either in the trial court or on appeal, which more directly raised the question of whether Aull had a motive not to be known as a snitch, i.e., one who willingly provides information to police. In answer to these questions, Aull frankly admitted that he wanted to continue to be able to hang out every day with his friends in Barry Farms, and that it would be harder for him to do so if his friends thought he was a snitch. He agreed with the prosecutor that if Aull were labeled a snitch, his standing among his peers would be undermined because they would be worried about whether or not ... [he would] snitch on them some time. . . . Aull thus acknowledged that he did have a motive not to be known as a snitch  and hence not to implicate Clayborne in Burns' murder. Aull insisted, however, that if he had heard Burns identify K.K. as his assailant, he would say so even if it did mean snitching. [4]