Don't press the _conclusion_ on the
witness. It is your province to show that in your argument.
A timid witness, whom you know to be telling the truth, may often be
confused by cross-examination and made to make a false statement; but
this you have no right, as an honorable attorney, to make him do. A
just judge ought to stop you if you try it. To confuse a witness whom
you know to be telling the truth is not skill; it is a trick, and a
very miserable trick, whose performance requires neither real ability
nor learning.
Think what a tremendous intellectual effort the properly conducted
lawsuit is. You must know your case; you must know your evidence; you
must know each witness as a person and each item of his testimony; you
must know the law applicable to your general proposition, and the
general law upon its various ramifications; you must study the
witnesses of the other side; and, almost more important than any of
these, you must study that wonderful combination of intellect,
prejudice, and passion called the jury.
When the time comes for you to address that jury you must thoroughly
understand each man. This is not that you may influence him, or "play
upon" him, or resort to any of the devices of the baser sort.
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