📄 Sidebar: witness recall — Wednesday, September 13, 1995
Address:
C:\DEPT103\CRIMINAL\1995\SEP\13\SIDEBAR-WITNESS-RECALL.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 153 of 167

Sidebar: witness recall

Date: Wednesday, September 13, 1995 • Utterances: 11
Defense attorney Barry Scheck asked to call prosecution witness Gary Sims as a defense witness mid-examination to elicit testimony about a July 17th sock examination he claims is exculpatory. Prosecutor Rockne Harmon objected on procedural grounds, invoking the three-day notice rule and arguing Sims would return anyway. Judge Ito sustained the People's objection.
1 (The following proceedings were held at the bench:)
2 THE COURT:

All right. We are over at the side bar.

3 MR. SCHECK:

Your Honor--

4 THE COURT:

Mr. Scheck, what is your concern?

5 MR. SCHECK:

My application is that in order to expedite matters, and in view of the fact that there is some issue about Mr. De forest and the whole question of exculpatory evidence, what I would like to do now is make Mr. Sims my own witness and ask him about his July 17th examination of the sock wherein he found a wet transfer on surface 3 of the second sock that was in the area that he typed of consistent with Nicole Brown Simpson. I realize that this would make him our witness at this point in time, but it saves us calling him back for a surrebuttal case.

KEY QUOTE
6 MR. HARMON:

Can I respond to that? Umm, they haven't even rested their case yet. He is going to be back with the fifth probe result, because it is going to drag on for weeks and weeks. That is just not appropriate at this time. We will be happy to make him available. We called him for a very limited reason. We really are trying to get this case to the jury and that is just going to reopen--they have never--well, what about the three-day rule? He has never mentioned that he was going to do that. If he wants him call him as his witness, give us three days' notice and we will have him back. Maybe he will have rested by then or maybe he will be the last witness in their case in chief. Well, I don't want to tell you what this is.

7 MR. SCHECK:

Frankly, the fact that we haven't rested only adds to the appropriateness of doing it now and the fact that we have this whole problem of something--a subsequent test performed by him and dr. De forest on July 17th that we believe is exculpatory evidence. And all I'm seeking permission to do is to get it on now and save us some time.

8 MR. HARMON:

The same amount of time now or later, your Honor. You know, we do have a three-day rule; although I never saw them held to it in their case. So I insist he will be available. I will make him available. I will any back and forth with him. But they want to obscure these powerful results and that is all this is.

9 THE COURT:

All right. The People's objection is sustained.

10 MR. HARMON:

Thank you.

11 (The following proceedings were held in open court:)

Temperature

tense

Key Quotes (3)

Barry Scheck
My application is that in order to expedite matters, and in view of the fact that there is some issue about Mr. De forest and the whole question of exculpatory evidence, what I would like to do now is make Mr. Sims my own witness and ask him about his July 17th examination of the sock wherein he found a wet transfer on surface 3 of the second sock that was in the area that he typed of consistent with Nicole Brown Simpson.
Scheck frames a procedural maneuver as urgency around exculpatory evidence — the wet transfer finding on the sock is central to the defense's contamination theory.
Rockne Harmon
They want to obscure these powerful results and that is all this is.
Harmon accuses the defense of using the procedural maneuver to bury the prosecution's DNA evidence rather than to surface exculpatory material.
Rockne Harmon
He is going to be back with the fifth probe result, because it is going to drag on for weeks and weeks.
Reveals the ongoing, incremental nature of DNA testimony and the prosecution's expectation that the trial would continue for an extended period.

Evidence (1)

Informal
The second sock, specifically surface 3, where Sims found a wet transfer consistent with Nicole Brown Simpson's DNA during a July 17th examination
discussed — defense sought to elicit testimony about this finding immediately

Notable Exchanges (1)

Barry ScheckRockne Harmon
Scheck frames calling Sims as his own witness as an efficiency measure to surface exculpatory evidence; Harmon counters that the defense is actually trying to obscure the prosecution's 'powerful results' and invokes the three-day notice rule.
strategic

Objections

1 objections (1 sustained, 0 overruled)
Proceeding 7656 • 11 utterances
Criminal Trial
Department 103
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📂 SEP 13, 1995 📄 Sidebar: witness recall
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