Defense Nightmare
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Please contact Jay B. Gaskill, attorney at law, via e mail at law@jaygaskill.com
Defense Nightmare
This morning, defense attorney Bill Du Bois asked the eight year old son of Han Reiser about the boy’s account that on the day of Mom’s disappearance he was disturbed by the image of Dad carrying “something big” down the stairs in a bag. He asked whether the boy was dreaming. [Defense cross examination handbook, rule one: never ask a question for which you do not already know the answer.] The answer was a defense nightmare – “I was not asleep”.
This jury obviously likes the Reiser boy. Du Bois is now in the unfortunate position that, having asked for it, he must now devote the rest of the defense case to discrediting the answer. Recall that the DA, wisely, did not portray this eight year old witness as necessarily having a perfect grasp of events. As of this morning’s ‘nightmare’ question and answer, the defense is now in the unenviable position of having made things worse.
My analysis will continue on Friday.
JBG
