Dear Students
In feedback received from last year, you expressed an interest to see updates on the Legal Writing blog of “live” trials. I can imagine that the Oscar trial sparked a lot of interest (and debate!) in this regard, it being the first South African criminal trial that was broadcasted live. However, except for the Oscar and Dewani trials, not many trials are broadcasted “live” in South Africa. We will therefore borrow from various other jurisdictions to give you a taste of trial lawyering.
Some of these videos show trials in the American court system. You should note that this is not the same as its South African counterpart – we do not have to convince a jury, but instead a legal expert (i.e. the judge or magistrate). It is included here because some aspects of trial lawyering are almost universal and can also be applied in South Africa.
Furthermore, some of these videos are edited and represent only an extract of the trials.
The aggression shown by one specific lawyer during cross-examination is interesting. Although it may be useful at times, if you are too aggressive you may elicit a negative response from the presiding officer and possibly damage your client’s case. Remember, cross-examination is as much an art as it is a science and you should experiment with different techniques to find what works for you.
An informative, albeit old, book on the topic is Francis Wellman’s The Art of Cross-Examination. It is now in the public domain and can be downloaded or read online (see below).
The UK Supreme Court has made live, current and decided cases available as online video streams and recordings, respectively. These can be accessed through the Court’s site (see below). As an example, see this case. You can also watch short clips from cases on their YouTube channel. [click on the blue links to view the various cases]
Sources:
Books:
PDF <http://www.trialtheater.com/documents/The_Art_of_Cross_Examination.pdf>.
E-Book <http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40781>.
Online <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40781/40781-h/40781-h.htm>.
Videos
Anonymous “Criminal trial lawyer cross examination (Video)” (01-11-2012) YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki0DOknN4D0>.
Anonymous “F Lee Bailey cross-examines a witness (Video)” (28-05-2011) YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVoIz2zNX9U>.
ENCA “Oscar Pistorius Trial” (14-04-2015) ENCA <http://www.enca.com/oscartrial>.
Jackson M “Cross-examination of expert witness: Two powerful cross examination questions (Video)” (28-01-2012) YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws5P2avXIQA>.
SABC Digital News “Oscar Pistorius trial: Thursday 10 April 2014, session 1 (Video)” (10-04-2014) YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_o_S84TzGY>.
UK Supreme Court “Current Cases (Videos)” UK Supreme Court <https://www.supremecourt.uk/current-cases/index.html>.
UK Supreme Court “Decided Cases (Videos)” UK Supreme Court <https://www.supremecourt.uk/decided-cases/index.html>.
UK Supreme Court “Live (Videos)” UK Supreme Court <https://www.supremecourt.uk/live/court-02.html>.
If above does not work, try:
Sky News “Supreme Court Live (Videos)” Sky News <http://news.sky.com/supreme-court-live>.
Wilcox E “Two quick & easy cross-examination tips (Video)” (29-06-2009) YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ0wiVM8ZTk>.
– Piet Kotzé
