访谈录 2012-03-19&03-21 马球大亨约翰.古德曼收养女友

 The contention¹ of the defense² that the Bentley lurched and those concussions³ was causing the problems, but no witnesses have testified to that.

 

That’s right, so we heard from a lot of witnesses yesterday, including many who arrived on the scene shortly thereafter. None of them saying that he said “Here I am in my car, the next thing I know my car lurches forward,” you would think that affects actually what happened. When he was telling people again and again what happened, how it happened, he would have said, “my car, I’ve lost control of it, suddenly it shot forward.” That’s the sort of thing the juries talk about when they get back into the jury room, when they start evaluating the totality of the account. And can we believe it? It’s the sort of thing you can expect those juries to discuss about. 

 

Right, except when we heard from the girlfriend, yesterday the first phone call he made and didn’t say a word to her about the heading, in some way, her testimony⁴ was kind of surprising, quite short. 

 

Yeah, very short, but she was never that important a witness, she’s a salacious witness, man, particular because she’s now his daughter as well. But she’s not that important in terms of actually providing evidence in this case, you know, this thing about the car does make you wonder whether he’s gonna have to take stand. Who else is going to be able to testify that’s what happened?

 

Yes, the defense who says they’ll bring an expert from Bentley will talk about problems with the car, this kind of car had issues etc. but to say that it actually happened in this case. 

 

And you’re usually leery about putting defendants⁵ on the stand. But here you think you might have to.

 

I am, in most cases I would tell you I don’t think the defendants are gonna take the stand. And look, it totally depends on how he would do in a mock cross examination that I’m assuring you that his defense attorney has done to either help him prepared to get on the stand or to convince him not to take the stand, one of those two.

 

But this may be just one of those cases where the best shot they have is to have him get up there and try and explain exactly what happened?

 

How about this testimony of Lisa Pembleton, the prosecution⁶’s star witness, the man mentioned his speed, said Roy Black, the defense attorney, this irated her, but you think that Black has to be a little careful about how far she goes.

 

She just comes across as this kind of locative witness, not someone who necessarily wants to be there, not someone who’s looking for the big payout, and the allegation from the defense is that she’s trying to sort of work with the plaintiffs in the context of a civil lawsuit⁷, a little big dangerous here, very important witness, because she’s the one who actually convinces him to call 911. 

 

And the prosecution not making a big deal about the fact that the girl friend is now the daughter. 

 

Yeah, no, not at all, I don’t think that’s gonna be a particularly significant issue in this case until maybe the sentencing, again, it probably shouldn’t matter then, but as I’ve said, I’ve said it before, I think it’s impossible to keep that out of the trial entirely⁸ in any way, shape or form, even if it means psychologically in terms of the judge, whoever counts.   

1 contention   

n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张

参考例句：

• The pay increase is the key point of contention. 加薪是争论的焦点。
• The real bone of contention,as you know,is money.你知道，争论的真正焦点是钱的问题。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 concussions   

n.震荡( concussion的名词复数 )；脑震荡；冲击；震动

参考例句：

• People who have concussions often trouble thinking or remembering. 患脑震荡的人通常存在思考和记忆障碍。 来自互联网
• Concussions also make a person feel very tired or angry. 脑震荡也会使人感觉疲倦或愤怒。 来自互联网

4 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

5 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

6 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。

7 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

8 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。