On Testimony Too Perfect

I forget who sent me this quote, but I’ve had it taped near my desk for 15 years or so.  After a couple of experiences, I started giving it to clients before their testimonies.  It’s really about telling the truth, but even more than that about ensuring the triar of fact that you’re human and with a conscience.

I don’t often post about my work in any respect, but this passage has even more meaning to me during an election season.  I take it as an ethical stand, but I wonder if Herbst is right.

“He should have boldly admitted to certain ideas now termed subversive, but were only honestly enlightened and leftish.  Instead he took to pure a stand, denied too much, admitted nothing.  A jury isn’t made up of lawyers.  They sense the truth.  You suspect a man who denies everything and is a pinnacle of proper conduct.  Admitting smaller things would have validated major denials.  Any novelist could have told them that.”  

- Josephine Herbst on the Alger Hiss trial