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Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
I would have thought they would have probed her recollection sufficiently to be confident that she woulnd't provide such an answer.
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I agree that should be done, but I also agree that you can probe recollections all you want and still get surprised by someone on the stand.
Maybe they should have been able to predict this, I don't know much about her and didn't see her on the stand and it is hard to say without seeing her testify.
My guess is that she was adamant to the prosecutors that she clearly remembered Martha saying that. Then when she got on the stand and had to actually look Martha in the face in the courtroom that she felt bad for her. Afterall, they were friends. There wasn't any animosity between them, was there?
That whole right to confront witnesses thing is in place for a reason. It is easy to tell the prosecutor what you remember about your friend's behavior when you don't have to look her in the face. Much harder to do when she is looking right at you.
This isn't a murder trial where a victim is testifying about what crime was comitted against her by the defendant. I am sure that the witness feels bad for Martha. Hell, I feel bad for Martha and I lost money in the stock market. She is being made an example of and she was overcharged.
Quote:
Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
If she was a friend, why did she blab in the first place?
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To avoid getting charged herself with obstruction of justice. Did she approach the investigators or did they approach her?
I hope my friends won't be shocked to hear this but if they are making stock trades based on wrongfully obtained information and they tell me about it, if the feds come knocking on my door, I am not getting myself charged with a felony by lying to the feds.
I am not taking the fall for something I didn't participate in simply because my friend goes around bragging about something illegal they have done. However, when you put me on the stand and I have to look at her and testify about what she told me, I am going to feel really bad about that. I may feel so bad that my memory starts to fail me right there on the stand when I was confident before I was actually in court that I could testify.
