[Iwo Jima]

They do not usually do depositions in criminal trials and certainly not at the grand jury stage.

But as I said, IF you want a jury to believe your expert, you must bring him to testify live. Reading his report and/or deposition simply will not do. Nor should it in a criminal case.

[Mamzelle]

re: They do not usually do depositions in criminal trials and certainly not at the grand jury stage.

sigh, well, yes...I was using that as an example of how juries do more than listen to live witnesses. Juries of ALL kinds see MORE than live witnesses testifiying.

But as I said, IF you want a jury to believe your expert, you must bring him to testify live. Reading his report and/or deposition simply will not do. Nor should it in a criminal case.

Your gripe with with the prosecution and legal tactics. Or maybe with the judge who supervised.

[hocndoc]

I served on a Federal District Grand Jury and we took a lot of testimony by hearing the summaries of depositions. We were also often told that we could call anyone to testify that we wanted and that we couldn’t talk about what we did in the jury until after the case was settled. When we refused to indict, we did so because we were convinced there wasn’t even enough reason to bring the person to trial, much less enough to convict. I think the judge’s orders are keeping everything secret after the “no bill.”