CRJ 200 WEEK 3 DISCUSSION

CRJ 200 WEEK 3 DISCUSSION
You are on a jury in a criminal trial for a bank robbery You hear from many witnesses, including lay witnesses. You hear from these lay witnesses on such things as distances, height and weight of the robbers, what kinds of weapons the robbers were holding, and how long it took for various parts of the robbery.
 What are you considering and weighing in your mind in assessing this testimony? What additional information would you want to hear from these witnesses in assessing the credibility of the testimony?
 “Leading questions”: Generally, they are not allowed in direct examination except in limited circumstances. In reality, there are times outside of the exceptions that judges just let leading questions be asked.
 What are some examples of a leading question? Why do you think leading questions are not allowed?
 Last module we discussed the weighing of evidence in cases of a defendant- prior bad acts. We again see a weighing with the admissibility of a witness- prior criminal convictions. Here, there is a weighing but it is weighted in favor of allowing it in unless the prejudicial effect substantially outweighs the probative value.
 We often have situations where a witness for either the prosecution or the defense, call witnesses who have criminal convictions. After all, crimes are not always witnessed by innocent people. I have personally had witnesses transported to court from prison or jail. They testified in a prison jumpsuit and chains.
 If you were to hear from a witness who had convictions for a felony such as burglary or convictions for crimes of “moral turpitude” such as check fraud, would you consider their testimony suspect because of this?