Dealing with a lying witness will happen to every lawyer who tries cases. Francis Wellman in The Art of Cross Examination (1903) discusses the perjured witness.
In Chapter IV, Wellman points out a false testimony witness may display “in the voice, in a vacant expression of the eyes, [and] in a nervous twisting in the witness chair….” We see these traits in Mayella Violet Ewell in the the movie clip from To Kill A Mockingbird where Gregory Peck presents classic cross examination.
Wellman covers techniques to use on the unsophisticated lying witness. “Try taking the witness to the middle of the story then jump… to the beginning then to the end.” This works because the witness has “no facts with which to associate the wording of her story.” She can “only call to mind as a whole rather than detachments.”
Wellman teaches “[d]raw attention to facts dissociated from the main story as told. [S]he will be entirely unprepared.” (This is seen in the clip when Peck demonstrates Tom’s lame left arm). Then, like Gregpry Peck in our film clip, return to the facts you have called to her attention (Tom’s lame left arm) and ask her the same question again (how did the rape take place given prior testimony).
As we learn from Wellman she cannot invent answers as fast as the questions.”[S]he will…become confused and from that time be at your mercy.” Then Wellman says let her go as soon as you have made it clear her testimony is not mistaken but lying.
As we see in the clip, and as predicted by Wellman, Mayella Ewell, is at the mercy of Atticus Finch. She cracks as Atticus and everyone else watches. This is the ultimate cross examination of a perjured witness.
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