Articles by Professor Woody Woodruff

Leading questions ordinarily allowed on cross-examination can be entirely inappropriate on direct-examination, but this does not mean only non-leading questions are permitted on direct. [...]

As a law professor, I’m always looking for interesting cases from which to create exam questions, both multiple choice and essay.  Sometimes the cases are rather straightforward and illustrate the application of a rule of evidence quite well.  These usually make great cases for multiple choice questions.  Other times they are complicated and nuanced and are much closer calls on the outcome.  These make great essay questions.  Then there are those that simply get the law wrong.  They, [...]

I doubt there’s a prosecutor or plaintiff’s lawyer in the state who would give up the opportunity to be the last lawyer to address the jury in a contested case.  Getting the last word is important.  The principle of recency tells us the people tend to remember what they hear last.  What better way to send the jury into the deliberation room that with your powerful closing argument ringing in their ears? But there’s another principle of persuasion that seems to get overlooked in many [...]

It was a Thursday afternoon, and I was contemplating a difficult and nuanced issue of evidence law.  My eyes were closed in deep concentration… OK, so I was napping after a big lunch.  My “contemplation” was interrupted by a third-year student who had done quite well in Evidence the previous semester and was interning in the District Attorney’s office under the third-year practice rule.  He was visibly upset and needed to talk.  The District Court judge before whom he was trying a [...]

 We’re all familiar with them, those classic cross-examination tips that, if applied correctly, will win your case and make you famous.  Irving Younger gave us “The 10 Commandments of Cross-Examination.”  Who can forget how Roy Black destroyed the State’s witness in the Robert Kennedy Smith rape trial?  Of course, there’s Tom Cruise from “A Few Good Men.”  For the more senior members of the audience, we all remember how Perry Mason won every case on cross-examination.  In [...]

It happens all the time.  Defense counsel in a criminal case works hard to avoid opening the door to her client’s character.  The facts of the case may be bad enough, but when the prosecutor gets to ladle a generous helping of bad character evidence on top, things go from bad to worse.  But keeping the character door shut does not mean the jury will not hear about the client’s less than stellar background.  That’s where NCRE 404(b), the rule that admits prior bad acts and uncharged [...]