Ask those questions whose answers you know in cross examination

Cross-examination is asking questions, on behalf of the accused, to the prosecution witness (PW). Cross questioning is done during a trial to dispute the evidence of the PW and bring something favourable for the accused.

The noun “cross-examination” was first recorded in a case in 1729, although the technique itself is much older, appearing in one case involving a will in Norwich in about 1200.

Thousands of books are written on the fine art of cross-examination every year. Very few lawyers master it and those who do, become the ultimate trial lawyers in any country.

There are many rules that sum up this art. The most popular are: the best cross-examination is not to cross-examine. And ask only those questions to the PW whose answers you (counsel for accused) already know. I firstly follow the second rule and secondly follow the first rule. 

I recently cross-examined a 68-year-old man appearing as a PW in a murder case. The man claimed in his testimony that he had seen my clients (two ladies) sitting on a motorcycle which was driven by another co-accused (a male). He also claimed to have seen a motorcycle rickshaw laden with a large trunk tailing the motorbike. The witness also claimed to have seen the registration numbers of the bike and the rickshaw when he crossed them at midnight on a deserted road.

I questioned the witness in the following sequence. I wanted to dispute his ability to see the faces of my clients and the registration number of the two vehicles.

Me: Do you use night vision glasses at night?

Witness: No.

Me: Do you have the ability to see in darkness?

Witness: No.

Me: Do you drive the motorcycle at night with high-beam light or low-beam light.

Witness: I use low beam on GT Road and high beam on village roads.

Me: What light you were using on the day?

Witness: High beam.

At this point, I asked the witness that passengers on two motorcycles crossing each other with high beam light can’t recognize the faces of the people coming from the opposite side let alone read the registration plates.

Now I had to dispute the PW’s statement wherein he not only claimed to have seen the registration plates but also remembered them for 34 days.

Me: Have you worked as the manager of the bus stop?

Witness: No.

Me: Have you been president of the rickshaw association?

Witness: No.

Me: Have you ever worked in any intelligence agency?

Witness: No.

I suggested to the PW that he is lying about remembering the registration plates of the two vehicles as he didn’t have the skill.

I had obtained whatever would favour my clients from the PW.

Beating the shit out of him

I recently got a murder case wherein the deceased was beaten to death by the male relatives of his girl friend. The boy had gone to her house at 10:00pm on a date. The girl’s relatives found him naked in a room in their house in compromising position with the girl. The beat the boy with sticks. The post mortem report gives a glimpse to the boy’s last moments. He was given severe stick blows on head. His hands did try to intervene between his tormentors and himself but the outraged attackers were numerous and he was standing on bad moral grounds.
Police found the dying boy naked and noted rectum muscles were loose. The doctor also noted presence of stool. The boy’s penis was also bruised, leading to suspicions that he was sodomoised before being killed.

Abducting reporters was not in our curriculum: Taliban

Taliban has denied their involvement in the abduction and  killing of reporter Saleem Shahzad.

Talking to That's Wrong, Taliban spokesman Mulla Dill Pazeer Khan has said that the only training imparted to Taliban was how to attack sensitive military installations, abduct dozens of security personnel and launch suicide attacks, adding that the abduction of journalists had never been in their curriculum.
Mulla Dill Pazeer Khan said that Taliban abducted only two kinds of people - ones who were very rich were abducted for ransom and those who were very beautiful males were abducted for company, adding that the deceased reporter didn't fall in these two categories.
When asked as to who could be behind this murder, he gave a wicked smile and wink to this scribe while combing his beard with fingers.

Family with no natural death and a lot of concubines.

None of the male members of this family has died naturally. No male member of the family married any girl legitimately. Concubines, runaway brides and abducted women have mothered the children of this family. When one brother dies, his wife is taken by other brother. The wife of the elder-most brother has to sleep with all the brothers of her late husband, untill they all die.
This is the story of a family where poverty, ignorance and brutality go hand in hand. All the male members have been either brutally murdered or waiting in death cells for their appeals to be heard by superior courts.
Their grandfather killed seven of a family after the family had told him not to make passes on their girl. He was awarded death sentence by a martial law court. The high court released him after it found serious flaws in his case. The grandfather was also murdered by some unidentified people. His sons also murdered people over women and they were also murdered in return.
Weddings never took place in this family. All the women are either concubines, keeps, are abducted or are developed illicit relations with.
PS: These shocking details have emerged from an old, dusty and bulky file from our office’s archives. More details were given by our paralegal clerk, who has an elephant’s memory.