In recent posts I mentioned witness testimony at trial.
It has occurred to me that I may have been misunderstood.
Sorry if I was not clear.
I did not mean witness to the crime or witness in the way that a witness would be participating in the crime.
Here is some information on Witness at Trial that may be helpful both now when we look at documents and at time of trial (if we ever get there)
Discovery
One of the first steps in preparing for trial is talking to witnesses who could be called to testify in court.
A witness is a person who saw or heard the crime take place
or
may have important information about the crime or the defendant.
Both the defense and the prosecutor can call witnesses to testify or tell what they know about the situation.
What the witness actually says in court is called testimony.
In order to testify, witnesses must take an oath to agree or affirm to tell the truth.
There are three types of witnesses:
- A lay witness — the most common type — is a person who watched certain events and describes what they saw.
- An expert witness is a specialist — someone who is educated in a certain area. They testify with respect to their specialty area only.
- A character witness is someone who knew the victim, the defendant, or other people involved in the case.
- Character witnesses usually don’t see the crime take place but they can be very helpful in a case because they know the personality of the defendant or victim, or what type of person the defendant or victim was before the crime.
- Neighbors, friends, family, and clergy are often used as character witnesses.
To avoid surprises at trial and to determine which of the witnesses to call to testify, the prosecutor talks to each witness to find out what they may say during trial. These conversations will help the prosecutor decide whom to call as a witness in court.
