The biggest US cover up trial has ended another long, tiring week. The jurors are taking their bus ride, the person at the center of the controversy is returning to prison, and the lawyers and defendants are facing a long weekend of work.
The US District Judge nearly runs off the stand as he exits his courtroom before another lawyer asks another question. The accused finally smiled after seeing him hurry out. His exhaustion is evident. He?s spent the week answering questions without emotion or tonal inflection. Because he is serving a one to four-year sentence for obstruction of justice, he?ll be escorted back to his correctional facility. The marshals wait patiently to do that.
The judge reminds the jury to take the weekend to relax, and to enjoy themselves. He tells them to have a good bus ride. The sequestered jury has been living in a motel. They will probably be taken out this weekend for a picnic and some time spent away from the hotel. Meanwhile, the district judge scolded attorneys for quarreling with each other and the trial judge. However, the admonishments when unheeded and the lawyers continued to bicker amoung themselves.
“Each of you has done a fairly good job getting the accused to admit his participation in the alleged cover up,” the judge stated. He went on to say, “It’s now up to the jury whether or not to believe what he’s admitted to.” During a recess, he considers the events and decides that the jury should not be influenced by the courts.
The jury?s reaction is yet to be determined, but the accused related the exact same riveting, detail-oriented testimony that he?d given previously during televised committee hearings. He may have confused some of the dates. Some spectators, who had waited in long lines to get into the courtroom, found the arguments between the lawyers and the judge to be much more fun to watch than the actual testimony.
Luckily for them, the jury and accused had been escorted from the courtroom before the last big fight happened. It seemed the government had failed to give the name of the person who would be the second witness next week. The lawyers were very unhappy about this. It was impossible for the chief prosecutor to give the name, because he said he didn?t have it. Also, the government had only promised to provide names one day prior to testimony. Just giving the name in order to stop an argument was reason enough.
The district attorney began searching for an acceptable compromise. “For the record, I strenuously protest the manner in which the prosecution has conducted this case.” “Many months have passed while I have had to wait to receive this information.” Failing to turn over the name prevents us from building a proper cross examination. Their claim that their testimony could be found on the back of a matchbook hardly makes sense when you realize we?ve provided them with thousands of pages of printed testimony. When the district attorney sighed and said they?d been getting along so well previously, the courtroom filled with laughter. The judge then stood from his chair, making it clear that he would be leaving. He commented that he had enough challenges just trying to keep the lawyers in line.
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