Notable Cross-Examinations

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About Notable Cross-Examinations

The object of this book is to let the cross-examination of one or more of the principal witnesses, in each case dealt with, speak for itself, with only such notes added as may be needed to clarify what might otherwise be obscure. In almost every trial a considerable part of the evidence adduced, though essential to the proof of the case, is less dramatic than that of the principal parties concerned. Each case referred to here is therefore prefaced by an attempt very briefly to explain the chief matters at issue; indicating, rather than setting out in detail, the points which the witnesses whose cross-examination is cited had established, or endeavoured to establish, in their evidence in chief.It is not intended in these pages to assess or criticise the value or brilliance of the cross-examination. The reader will have to do that for himself. He will, indeed, be in the position of a listening juryman—save, of course, in this—that he will have to rely upon himself, and will not have the invaluable assistance of the Judge’s summing up to guide him in his assessment. This, however, is a less grievous handicap than it would have been had not the verdict—it is to be assumed—been well and truly arrived at, with the help referred to, in the more or less distant past.—E. W. Fordham