From: demon@desire.wright.edu (Not a Boomer)
Subject: Re: The state of justice
Organization: ACME Products
Lines: 46

In article <1qksa4INNi7m@shelley.u.washington.edu>, tzs@stein2.u.washington.edu (Tim Smith) writes:
> demon@desire.wright.edu (Not a Boomer) writes:
>>	A judge denied GM's new trial motion, even though GM says it has two
>>new witnesses that said the occupant of the truck was dead from the impact, not
>>from the fire.
>>
>>	Thoughts?
> 
> How can a witness tell that someone in a burning truck is dead rather than
> unconscious?

	Their testimony would be a contradiction of the plaintiff's charge (and
witness) that the occupant moved after the impact, indicating he was alive and
trying to get out (and provoking all sorts of sympathetic 'gross, burned alive'
reactions).

>>	It's kind of scary when you realize that judges are going to start
>>denying new trials even when new evidence that contradicts the facts that led
>>to the previous ruling appear.
>>
>>	Or has the judge decided that the new witnesses are not to be believed? 
>>Shouldn't that be up to a jury?
> 
> What kind of witnesses?  If we are talking about witnesses who were at
> the accident, or were otherwise directly involved (e.g., paramedics,
> emergency room doctors, etc.), then they should have been used at the
> first trial.  You don't get a new trial because you screwed up and
> forgot to call all of your witnesses.

	They are two witnesses who didn't come forth until after the first
trial.  While it would be "tough luck" for GM if they new about these witnesses
beforehand, IMO this constitutes "new evidence".

> If we are talking about new expert witnesses who will offer new
> interpretations of the data, note that the loser can *ALWAYS* find
> such witnesses.  If this were grounds for a new trial, then the loser
> could *ALWAYS* get a new trial, and keep doing so until the loser
> becomes a winner (and then the other side would come up with new
> expert witnesses).

	No, I support rulings that deny new trials on those grounds.

Brett
________________________________________________________________________________
	"There's nothing so passionate as a vested interest disguised as an
intellectual conviction."  Sean O'Casey in _The White Plague_ by Frank Herbert.
