The Secret Barrister- Trial on Trial: Part 1 The Case Against

 Summary

In chapter 8 of The Secret Barrister Stories of the law and how it is broken, we look at a variety of things that contribute to the case against. This includes when the defendant admits to guilt to the Barrister, the cross-examination, dismissing evidence and searching for the truth, and the writer writes in detail about all of these things. Throughout this chapter, The Secret Barrister uses the case study of a man committed of historic sexual abuse of his two daughters who have been known to lie about such things previously.

Firstly, the Secret Barrister mentions that is his client admits to the offence to the Barrister outside of court then this Barrister must not lie and say that he did not do the crime if the defendant has admitted to it. It is for this reason that in such cases the Barrister's are only allowed to do so much and look for gaps in the prosecution evidence and point out any gaps but they cannot paint a picture that any of the prosecution or witnesses are lying and cannot say that their client did not commit the offence when the defendant has admitted to doing it.

Secondly, when talking about the cross-examination of the witnesses the Secret Barrister again makes it clear that they are trained well on how to do the cross-examination from the first year of law school. We learn that the defence team who are leading the cross-examination is taught to only answer closed questions, this is mainly so they can get the desired answers. Further, they are also taught that they should only ask questions of which they know what the witness will respond within order to help support their case and look for weaknesses in any of the evidence. This is all so the defence team get the answers they want.

Finally, we are also told later in the chapter that previous convictions are also important. Depending on whether the defendant has committed crimes before or not can largely affect whether the jury comes back with a guilty or not-guilty verdict. This is because if a criminal reoffends then people should be questioning whether they are fit for society or not. It is also important to look at the witnesses or victims past to see if they have been known to lie or falsely accuse someone of an offence in the past as this could also affect the juries verdict dramatically.

Anyway, that's all of my notes for this chapter and everything that stood out to me. As always, if you have not already I would highly suggest you read the Secret Barrister's book yourself and more importantly this chapter so you can learn about all of the issues in the England and Wales criminal justice system in great detail. Please remember to subscribe to this blog and check it regularly for new posts. Please also help me with my mission of getting more teenagers into reading by either buying me a book or donate via Paypal using one of the buttons at the side of this blog. Thank you for all your continued support.