The other day, a fellow lawyer was telling me of a case of his where his client, incarcerated in jail and unable to afford the professional fee, insisted on being polygraphed. He also wanted a psychological work-up to counter the State’s prosecution theory. Somehow, the client came up with the money to get these two things done and lo and behold, the lawyer beamed, the examinations revealed (more…)
A few years back, I was invited to work with a Caprock High School senior in honing his advocacy and debating skills. Apparently, one of his projects in his political science class was to take on a legal-related subject and work up a position paper and then reduce that to a five-minute oral presentation. He was also instructed to prepare to defend his paper. My job was to help him with the content of the presentation and then challenge his conclusions through some gentle cross-examination. The young man worked very hard, was prepared and did his job. I don’t know what happened with him afterward. I hope he has done well. (more…)