At the CO we appreciate all of our readers’ comments, especially those as insightful as one this weekend from Bobby Peters, a Superior Court Judge in Georgia. I wanted to feature his comment, which was posted regarding my piece on whether Raj Rajaratnam should testify. Please enjoy, and thank you Judge Peters.
"There are two things in life a person must do alone, die and testify. Once dead, you are dead. Once on the stand, your all alone without a lifeline, and you can’t call a friend or stop the proceedings to get legal assistance on how to form your answer. As a Judge I have seen many cases lost with good people making bad attempts to sway jurors to the facts as they see them. There are many factors to consider on whether or not a defendant should testify. A salesman will believe he can sell anything, including his story to jurors; he only needs one sale out of twelve for a hung jury. But you cant under estimate the common sense of those common folks. Thanks for the article, it was interesting. Bobby Peters, Superior Court."