Opinion ID: 2385862
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Scope of Redirect Examination

Text: While cross-examining a medical examiner who had testified for the state, defense counsel asked the witness whether he had observed blood stains on Boston's body after the victim was murdered. The witness replied that he had seen blood stains on the body and that some of the blood had been drawn up into the victim's clothes from a pool of blood on the floor. Although the state had not asked about the pool of blood on direct examination, the prosecutor on redirect examination asked the medical examiner where the blood forming the pool had originated. Defense counsel objected to this question on the ground that it went beyond the scope of cross-examination. The objection was overruled, and Hilton reasserts his objection on appeal. We find no error in the trial justice's ruling. Although M.R.Crim.P. 26(b) provides that, as a general principle, any re-examination of a witness shall be limited to matters brought out in the last examination by the adverse party, the rule recognizes an exception to that principle where the court grants special leave to broaden the scope of re-examination. Hence, even if it be thought the state's question on redirect examination went beyond the matters brought out in defense counsel's cross-examination, the justice was within his discretion in allowing the state's expanded inquiry.