From PoliceOne.com, comes Pat McCarthy’s article “Turning Testimony from Stressful to Successful”. Before we get to the parts that a skeptical defense lawyer might highlight on his blog, let me give some kudos to the subtitle:
The baseline for all good witnesses is to just tell the truth — the benchmark for cops on the stand is that we’re just doing our jobs
OK, the first part is good, tell the truth. Not that any witness who was just sworn in (“Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you shall give in the cause now pending before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, yadda, yadda, yadda…”) should need a refresher course on the necessity of telling the truth… but, that’s certainly an admirable piece of advice to put up front in any how-to article about testifying. Especially if your audience needs that as a reminder.