His heart pounded as he took his seat in the witness box. His friend accused of murder, and losing the case. He could hardly believe it, he was with his friend that night, at the time it happened, it could not have been his friend. Yet, the lawyer before him held a tight trial, no word was spoken he didn’t authorize, he drilled the witnesses hard while the state lawyer his friend was stuck with never raised any objection.
It was down to this. The lawyer wanted to make the jury believe that he was lying to protect his friend. They were all but convinced, after all he couldn’t prove they had been together, that there was no way that he could have done it.
“…the defendant is known to be an angry drunk…” the lawyer lied. He knew his friend had a charge on his record of violence while intoxicated, and that he was ordered into rehab for it. What was not told back then was that it was largely an accident, no fight, no screaming just a stumble that looked a lot worse than it was. The state attorney did just as smashing a job back then as this one is doing now.
“…and after drinking excessively, the defendant ran across the victim, and the victim rubbed him the wrong way, then in a drunken rage he beat the victim down…” He knew what was coming now, all the lawyer had to do to make the case seem plausible was to prove that his friend still drank; though he hadn’t touched a drop since that incident years ago.
“The defendant had no alcohol in his house” the state attorney squeaked, finally trying to object to anything at all.
“You do not need alcohol at the house to get drunk, he knew he was put through rehab he wouldn’t drink openly around the house.” the lawyer replied and turned to face him. “I know he still drinks because he still visits the local bar, infact even last Saturday he was there with his friends; Wasn’t he.”
“He wasn’t dr-” he began but the lawyer cut him off before he could
“Answer the question, sir.” the man said sternly.
“As I was trying to say, he didn’t dr-”
“Yes. Or no. Was he or was he not at the bar with you last Saturday” it was a typical routine, if he said yes it ‘proved’ his friend still drank, if he said no he was a liar. He’d seen it on TV, in movies he could hardly believe he was seeing it now with himself in the witness box about to tell the world that his friend was a murderer.
“Answer the question” the judge said looking down at him.
“I..Can’t” he said. He felt the eyes of everybody on him, he wanted to shrink down or run away, he could tell the lawyer was fuming under his seemingly calm face.
“And why can’t you answer” the lawyer stated “The fifth amendment applies to self incriminating questions only.”
“You made me swear” the man said slowly, trying to build the confidence to continue “To tell the tru”
“Truth whole truth and nothing but the truth” the lawyer finished quickly, in an almost mocking tone “Now tell me the truth, did he or did he not go to the bar.”
He looked up nervously at the judge, who seemed less than pleased with the delay “Simply yes or no won’t truthfully answer the question, it is misleading” he said, his voice quivering, everything depended on what the judge said next.
The judge looked back down at him “Then tell the whole truth, was he at the bar?”
“He was the designated driver, your honor.” he said slowly “That is the only reason he was at the bar, so he could drive us home safely.”