0912

3. He owns guns - sustained. No foundation she has been inside his house or personally seen anything.

4. He was fired in January -- sustained. No foundation she has any personal knowledge whether the Kwik-E-Mart manager fired him.

5. He said he couldn’t pay child support - overruled. She said she heard him say this, that’s all that is needed. (The testimony described what he said to her, not that she knew whether he had in fact been fired).

6. He became despondent -- overruled but a close call. Witnesses cannot generally testify to another person’s state of mind because they lack the ability to observe mental states. But people in intimate relationships like spouses do “know” each other’s mental states. The problem her is that they’ve been divorced for 5 years but still in contact, so it’s borderline to me.

7. He was convinced he’d lose visitation - overruled. This seems like a state of mind she would know from the current ongoing relationship.

Any questions? E-mail me at tanford@indiana.edu and include the reference 912

I now want to turn to some hypotheticals based on testimony in the movie, The Caine Mutiny.

In the movie, the following testimony takes place at the start of the trial. The witness is Ensign Willis Keith.

Q: Were you officer of the deck on morning of 31st July?
A: Yes

Q: Was the Captain relieved of command by the executive officer?

What objection could the defense make? Write down your objection (I have a specific reason for wanting you to write it out) and then click here.