Why Bobby Lee Cook, who has died at age 94, is revered by the criminal defense bar - an excerpt of one of his more notable cross-examinations of Eddie Lawrence from my book, "Secrets Never Lie": @LesterTate @StateBarofGA @MYGACDL @PagePate @CourtTV #truecrime @AshleighMerchan
"Normally, Bobby Lee Cook eased into a cross-examination, lulling his witness into a false self-confidence before he eviscerated him with the deftness of a surgeon. This time, Bobby Lee traded his legal scalpel for a sledge hammer. With his first question, a minor discrepancy...
...on Eddie's resume, the lawyer opened an unrelenting attack on Eddie laced with sarcasm, a sneering disgust, and utter contempt that lasted the better part of two days and led him to call Eddie a liar dozens of times. "That's not the truth, is it?" he bellowed as Eddie...
...attempted to answer his questions. "That's not what happened, is it? You're a liar. You've lied so much even you don't know when you're lying or telling the truth. Can you name anyone before five o'clock who can believe anything that you said? Why don't you tell the truth?"
Cook was combative and provocative as he cross-examined Eddie on the details of police statements based, not on tape-recorded conversations, but on notes of grueling interviews; on Eddie's grand jury testimony; on testimony he gave in two previous trials but hadn't reviewed...
...in years. Cook's tactics were calculated, intended to goad Eddie into qualifying his statements, or justifying rather than simply acknowledging his crimes; to stamp him as a cocky dissembler who couldn't keep his story straight; to lure him into a battle of wit and words...
...with Cook that he would never win. "You wouldn't have said anything like that because it would have been a big lie, and it would have hurt your conscience," Cook sneered whenever Eddie protested. "You just made that up, didn't you? Sometimes people lie when it's to...
...their advantage and will help them. Sometimes people will lie when it's not to their advantage. And sometimes people will lie when they don't know they're lying. Which category do you fall into?" As always, Cook punctuated his brutal cross-examination with questions that ...
...began with the artful phrase, "Don't you know," which preceded a sometimes highly imaginative interpretation of events. They were traps, statements masquerading as questions intended to lure Eddie into contradictions that would sabotage his testimony. Bobby Lee had employed...
...the technique for decades, befuddling dozens of star witnesses until the thread of their testimony was lost in a briary tangle of missteps, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and denial. Eddie was wary of such traps, having first been warned of them before he testified.
But if he corrected the indignant lawyer for some perceived misstatement, Bobby Lee, his voice laced with a venomous incredulity, would answer, "Oh? That's not correct? What I just said is not correct? Oh, let's see if it is. Are you sure about that? Sure about that?"
"Are you telling this court that I am attempting to defraud this court? Well, let's see if I can try to defraud the court again." ... And, gradually, Eddie fell back on the glib, slick, evasive answers of a low-rent, flim-flam man. Which was exactly what Bobby Lee intended.
"You're pretty slick, aren't you?" he demanded as Eddie struggled to answer his aggressive questions. "When you get through with all that double talk, answer this. Why don't you come clean? I want you to stop lying to this jury."
And on it went. One man, a namesake who had known Bobby Lee for years and who came to the courtroom to watch, said, "What you see in the courtroom, that's as much like the young Bobby Lee as you'll ever see."
"This," Bobby Lee said during one courtroom break," is more fun than I thought."
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