Third Circuit Gives Defense Lawyers Pro-Tip: Say Something If Judge Scolds Witness

Pro-tip to the defense bar, courtesy of the Third Circuit: If a witness to a gun fight suggests that your client shot in self-defense, and then the judge pressures the witness to testify that your client shot first, you really, really need to object and cross-examine the witness about the changed testimony. Especially when the remaining evidence against him was “negligible.” This is ineffective assistance of counsel. Reversed.

The case is Rogers v. Greene, No. 21-2601 (3d Cir. Sept.7, 2023).