Pattern Cross-Examination for Sexual Assault Cases
Jan. 2, 2017 — In their new book, Pattern Cross-Examination for Sexual Assault Cases: A Trial Strategy & Resource Guide, criminal defense lawyers Michael Waddington and Alexandra González-Waddington give defense counsel cross-examination questions that can be easily modified and used in a variety of sexual assault cases. The book will help defense lawyers cross-examine challenging witnesses without having to reinvent the wheel with each new case.
According to Michael Waddington, “Too many innocent men are locked up in prison due to incompetent defense counsel. We wrote this book to give defense attorneys the tools they need to zealously represent their clients.”
The book contains thousands of questions to effectively cross-examine a variety of witnesses, including the alleged victim; crime scene investigators; sexual assault forensic examiners; DNA experts, hostile witnesses, and more. It covers a range of topics including selective memory; victim injury; the motive to lie; false allegations; false confessions; proper evidence handling; and more. Many of the questions are based on medical and law enforcement textbooks, as well as training manuals used throughout the United States.
The book is published by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). The NACDL is the preeminent organization in the United States advancing the mission of criminal defense lawyers to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or other misconduct.
About the Authors
Michael Waddington is a criminal defense lawyer who has successfully defended cases in military courtrooms around the world, including Japan, South Korea, Germany, Iraq, Bahrain, Italy, England, and across the United States. Heʼs been involved in high-profile court-martial cases—from the “War on Terror” to the “War on Sex Assault”—and has been reported on and quoted by hundreds of major media sources worldwide.
Mr. Waddington is the best-selling author of The Art of Trial Warfare: Winning at Trial Using Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and the Trial Warrior’s Book of Wisdom. He has provided consultation services to CNN, “60 Minutes”, ABC’s “Nightline”, the BBC, CBS, and the Golden Globe winning TV series, “The Good Wife”. He appeared in the 2009 CNN documentary, “Killings at the Canal”, and some of his cases have been the subject of books and movies. These include the Academy Award winning documentary “Taxi to the Dark Side” and the 2013 documentary “The Kill Team”. Since 2013, Mr. Waddington has been an annual contributor to the American Bar Associationʼs publication, “The State of Criminal Justice”. He is also a fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers (ABCL).
Alexandra González-Waddington is a founding partner of the González & Waddington Law Firm and a Georgia registered mediator. She has represented and defended hundreds of defendants charged with sexual crimes and has worked on some of the most notorious war crime cases stemming from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Alexandra is a former Assistant Public Defender in the State of Georgia and has worked on various types of cases. These include rapes, larcenies, and white-collar crimes. In 2015 and 2016, she wrote chapters in the American Bar Association books, “The State of Criminal Justice”.
