Effective Courtroom Testimony, part 1

Courtroom as Classroom

In my introductory post on this topic, I mentioned that the officer is a witness-teacher in court. To understand this concept, it's helpful to think of the courtroom as a classroom. And in this "classroom," the witness is the teacher. The "students" make up the jury. But unlike a college class that students enroll in, these "students" didn't ask to attend this "class." They were summoned to attend: told to set aside their work, their plans, in effect, their lives. Further, these students may be prohibited from asking questions of the teacher. They may even be told to not discuss what they learn from the teacher. In this courtroom as classroom analogy, the prosecutor is the designated student. It's almost as if the juror-students selected someone to ask all the questions of the teacher that they can't ask. As the designated student, the prosecutor asks questions from the students' perspective, sometimes asking the teacher-witness to explain. For example, "Officer, you used the term 'miosis.' Please explain what you mean by that term." What, then is the role of the defense attorney. Well, to a large degree, the defense attorney wants to testify! But he/she can't do that: only the witness can testify. So the defense "testifies" by making statements, and then asking the witness to agree with him/her. That's what we call leading questions. Example: "Officer, you don't know what my client's normal blood pressure is, right?" The judge is the last part of this courtroom as classroom analogy. The judge makes sure all the rules are followed, and decides disputes. The judge may even mete out discipline when the judge's rulings are challenged. So the judge can be thought of as a sports referee, or possibly as a school principal.

Thinking of the courtroom as a classroom provides some interesting challenges, and opportunities, for the officer-witness. I will discuss this in more detail in future posts.

Effective Courtroom Testimony, Introduction

Testifying in court is stressful, as it should be. In my opinion, there are three primary reasons that testifying is stressful: (1) testifying is a form of public speaking; (2) for a police officer, testifying is in many ways the opposite of what he/she does every day - take control. In court, the officer cedes control to the attorneys and the judge, and primarily just answers the questions; and (3) testifying is serious business. A person's freedom may be at stake, and justice for the victim may depend upon the testimony.

 

I've heard many famous entertainers explain that they still get "butterflys" before taking the stage, even though they may have sang the same song thousands of times.  "Butterflys" in the stomach is a symptom of stress - good stress. If you don't feel some stress before taking the witness stand, perhaps you're not taking your responsibility as seriously as you should.

 

In future entries, I will discuss many different aspects of testifying in court, including the various types of questions that will be asked. I will also provide some "tips" in order to help you be a better communicator, actually teacher, in court.