THE ART OF CROSS-EXAMINATION
made in his direct testimony, and which his letter contradicts. "I have you down as saying so and so; will you please repeat it? I am apt to read my notes to the jury, and I want to be accurate." The witness will repeat his statement. Then write it down and read it off to him. "Is that correct? Is there any doubt about it? For if you have any explanation or qualification to make, I think you owe it to us, in justice, to make it before I leave the subject." The witness has none. He has stated the fact; there is nothing to qualify; the jury rather like his straightforwardness. Then let your whole manner toward him suddenly change, and spring the letter upon him. "Do you recognize your own handwriting, sir? Let me read you from your own letter, in which you say,"—and afterward—"Now, what have you to say to that?" You will make your point in such fashion that the jury will not readily forget it. It is usually expedient, when you have once made your point, to drop it and go to something else, lest the witness wriggle out of it. But when you have a witness under oath, who is orally contradicting a statement he has previously made, when not under oath, but in his own handwriting, you then have him fast on the hook, and there is no danger of his getting away; now is the time to press your advantage. Put his self-contradictions to him in as many forms as you can invent:—
"Which statement is true?" "Had you forgotten this letter when you gave your testimony today?" "Did
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