Category: Witness

In criminal cases, in order to prove the charges, the prosecutors usually have to call witnesses either at a preliminary hearing, a motion a trial – also, the defense is entitled to call witnesses at the right proceedings. In order to call a witness, typically you either ask that person to be there or the best way to do it is to issue a subpoena and have the subpoena served on them – basically ordering that person to come into court, and you as a defense, have the subpoena power just like the prosecutors have the subpoena power in a… Read More

The term impeachment has to do with challenging a witness related to their testimony against a criminal defendant. There are different ways to impeach a witness. One form of impeachment is called extrinsic impeachment, which basically has to do with impeaching a person with evidence that’s outside their testimony or outside of the allegations in a particular case. Extrinsic impeachment is very effective to show that a witness is not telling the truth and has a tendency to lie or distort the facts. So, this form of extrinsic impeachment has to do with asking the witness about a collateral issue… Read More

Having done criminal defense cases for twenty-five years, I’ve had a lot of witness I.D. issues. Meaning, I’ve had a lot of cases where my client says, I’m innocent. I didn’t commit the crime, but they have witnessed out there by identifying them as being involved in the crime. Obviously, that’s something that a great criminal defense attorney is going to have to contend with throughout their career. That is, witnesses coming in and trying to identify their clients. It’s interesting because if you ever do a little exercise and you try to take a look at somebody, or you… Read More