Ms. Erika Wilson demonstrates a proper direct examination.

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Good morning. Would you please turn and introduce yourself to the jury? [00:00:04] Carissa Washington: Good morning. My name is Carissa Washington. [00:00:07] Speaker 1: Now, Ms. Washington, how old are you? 29. And would you tell the members of the jury why you're here today? [00:00:14] Carissa Washington: I'm here because two of my children were killed. They were taken from me. [00:00:19] Speaker 1: Now, Ms. Washington, before we get into all of the accident, I wanted to ask you a few questions about your children. How many did you have? [00:00:27] Carissa Washington: At the time of the accident, I had six children. And how many do you have now? I was pregnant at the time, so I have five now. Okay. And Ms. Washington, where do you and your children live? It's not the best neighborhood. We don't really have that much, but my family was priceless. We had each other. [00:00:53] Speaker 1: Ms. Washington, did you ever have any problems with your children? [00:00:58] Carissa Washington: Just one time, DCF had to come out to the house, but that had nothing to do with me, and we fixed the problem immediately. [00:01:06] Speaker 1: Well, that problem, I just, would you mind telling the members of the jury a little bit about it? [00:01:10] Carissa Washington: My boyfriend, my boyfriend at the time, he beat his kids, and I didn't know that. So, once I found out, I kicked him out. [00:01:19] Speaker 1: Okay. Now, Ms. Washington, I know this is going to be difficult, but I want to talk with you about the day that your two children were killed. Would you tell the jury how the day started out for you? [00:01:33] Carissa Washington: The children had just gotten home from school. It was March 21st. I'll never forget it. It was a beautiful day outside, and they really wanted to go to the park. At first, I said no, because it was getting a little bit cold. But Jordan insisted that he would watch his brothers and his sister, so I walked them over there. [00:01:58] Speaker 1: You mentioned Jordan. Who is that, Ms. Washington? [00:02:02] Carissa Washington: Jordan was my 14-year-old son. [00:02:04] Speaker 1: Now, Ms. Washington, why did you allow Jordan to go to the park with your other children? [00:02:09] Carissa Washington: He was so good with the other kids. He really liked being the big brother, and it taught him responsibility. So, I mean, they deserved it. They were good kids. I wanted them to go outside and play. Did you go with them to the park? Oh, absolutely. I walked them across the street. I dropped them off at the park, which is also a community center. And I told them that I would be back to get them. [00:02:33] Speaker 1: And when did you go back to get your children? [00:02:37] Carissa Washington: I noticed it was getting, it was starting to get dark. So, I walked outside, and then a neighbor ran up to me yelling. And I ran across the street, and that's when I saw Jordan lying on the ground, bleeding. [00:02:55] Speaker 1: Now, Ms. Washington, when you saw your child lying on the street, bleeding, what did you do? [00:03:02] Carissa Washington: I knelt, I fell to my knees, and then I saw Ronald, my other son. [00:03:09] Speaker 1: Now, Ronald, where was he? [00:03:12] Carissa Washington: He was also lying in this street, and he was lying there lifeless. He had already died. [00:03:21] Speaker 1: Now, Ms. Washington, I just want to back up for a moment. When you got to the street that day, did anyone tell you what happened? [00:03:31] Carissa Washington: They, people just said a car came out of nowhere, and that's all I remember. [00:03:40] Speaker 1: Okay. Now, Ms. Washington, did you ever find out who hit your children? [00:03:47] Carissa Washington: Yes, Rebecca Hartwell. [00:03:50] Speaker 1: And how do you know that? [00:03:52] Carissa Washington: About a week later, her parents came to my house, and they told me. They tried to talk to me, but it was just too soon, and I wasn't feeling up to speaking with them. [00:04:09] Speaker 1: Now, Ms. Washington, you said that Rebecca Hartwell's parents came to your home. Did you ever hear from Rebecca Hartwell herself? [00:04:17] Carissa Washington: Not personally. I saw her on the news. She was reading an apology off a piece of paper. It wasn't much of an apology. [00:04:28] Speaker 1: Ms. Washington, did Ms. Hartwell ever apologize to you personally? [00:04:36] Carissa Washington: No, she didn't. She killed my children, and she never personally apologized to me. [00:04:42] Speaker 1: Thank you, Ms. Washington. No further questions, Your Honor, at this time. [00:04:57] Speaker 3: All right, Erica. I want to talk with you about taking a very good direct examination and making it better. Sometimes, when we've got a good direct examination with structure and with presentation that flows, we want to look to the language, the word choices of the attorney in the presentation of the questions, because it can be the difference between, man, that was good, to everybody in the room is crying. All right? And so, I want to bring you to that next level. And in doing that, we'll identify some things that you did well and some things that I would like to see change slightly to increase the impact of the persuasion. Okay? Sure. All right. You began the direct in an interesting way. Why don't you share with me how you started that direct examination? [00:05:43] Speaker 1: Well, I wanted Ms. Washington to be acquainted with the jury, so I wanted her to turn and introduce herself to them and how old she was and then go into the flow of her children. [00:05:52] Speaker 3: Go into the flow of her children. Now, I want to suggest something to you that is really interesting. It's just one additional question. You get her to introduce herself to the jury, and then you turn to her and you say, Ma'am, why are you here today to testify? Highlighting the entire reason that the witness is before the jury at this moment in time. When the jury first hears them speak, you ask that why question, and she's going to say, I'm here because Rebecca Hartwell ran over my children on the 21st of March, and I want justice for those children, or something like that, right? Right. They now know the purpose of this witness. They know where she fits into the scheme of the maneuver, and it sets the feel for everything else that you're going to do with it. And then for that reason, it's a very interesting technique that is getting more and more play and more and more use in trials here over about the last 10 years. It's something I'd just like for you to think about because it flows really well into what you did. Now, I mentioned to you language is always an issue, you know, the way to ask the question. I heard you ask a couple of questions, use a couple of small words that you don't need. For example, ma'am, could you tell me a little bit about? What is a little bit about? [00:07:12] Speaker 1: Yeah. [00:07:12] Speaker 3: Yeah, what is it? I mean, is it a little bit about a part of it, a little bit about another? Usually when a lawyer uses the phrase a little bit about in a direct examination, they're worried about an objection to a narrative question, right? Right. Right, okay. And what's interesting is you don't need it because in other places you used wonderful headlines to direct the witness specifically to the area that you wanted to ask. And you use that little bit about phrase very close to the beginning of the direct examination, which is another thing that we do all the time as we're kind of getting started. Ma'am, I'd like to talk with you a little bit about, and then I think as a juror, well, maybe I'll pay a little bit of attention. Okay? So it's something to think about. I noticed that you had nice movement of the witness towards the jury speaking, and you didn't tell her to look at the jury the entire time, but the way in which you asked the questions brought her to the jury, and that worked very well. By the same token, of course, here, your jury's really that camera, right? Right. And you positioned yourself in a way that lets you be present in the jury's eye, but not overwhelming to the jury's eye. Now, you and I both know if you were in a real courtroom, you probably would be closer to the edge of the jury box, or you'd move in a way to bring the focus to the witness, right? That's right. And I could see you doing that with your voice and with your hand gestures, and that was really well done. And then finally, I just want to point out something you did that was just awesome. There was this wonderful looping moment. You ask her a question about what she sees in the street, and she gives you this description of her child lying in the street, bleeding. Nice moment. And then what do you do? Your next question. Ma'am, when you saw the child lying in the street, bleeding, what did you do? That was a great use of a proper loop of the witness's prior testimony, underlying the thing that's most important, and bringing the jury into that emotional moment. Well done. [00:09:14] Speaker 1: Thank you, sir. [00:09:15] Speaker 3: All right.