What is cross-examination and when is it applied in court?
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So the structure of a trial goes something like this (I’m ignoring all the pre-trial stuff, starting with “all rise”).
* Attorneys give their opening statements.
* Prosecution calls their witnesses for testimony.
* Defense calls their witnesses for testimony.
* Attorneys give their closing statements.
Note the division in the middle – each side of the trial will have their own witnesses, based on whose side of the case their testimony will help.
Each witness is called individually, and is then asked question by the side who called them (so if they’re a witness for the prosecution, the prosecutor will question them) – this is called **direct examination** and is often skimmed over in courtroom drama shows since it is just a restatement of what we’ve seen at the start anyway.
After their own side has finished with questions, they will tell the judge “No further questions”, and then the opposing counsel will be given the opportunity to ask their own questions. This is the **cross examination** and the main difference is that this exchange is more adversarial – it is opposing counsel’s job to point out holes in their story, make them flustered, ask for tough explanations, and convince either the judge or the jury that their testimony should not be considered as strongly.
One of the major differences between the two is that when you are conducting cross examination, you are permitted to ask *leading questions* – these are questions that poke the answerer towards a desired answer. An example that shows this: A neutral question that might be asked on direct examination would be “Please tell us what happened on October 5th of last year”, whereas a leading question about the same fact would be along the lines of “On October 5th of last year, you witnessed Mr. Smith leaving his house with a gun, is this correct?” (This is distinct from a *loaded question* which has the fun example of “Mister Smith, when did you stop beating your wife?” – the question presupposes the facts both that Mr. Smith has a wife, and that Mr. Smith has at some point beaten his wife. Most answers you might give to that would imply those things, unless you’re exceptionally verbose in a response.)
TL;DR: cross examination is what you are probably most familiar with in courtroom dramas, as it’s a witness from one side being questioned by the attorney of the opposing side.
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