Can a prosecutor force a defendant to call a witness a liar?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. McLaurin, B250278 (Cal. App. 2015):
The danger of allowing a prosecutor to elicit testimony from a defendant that another witness is lying, is that the accusation will diminish the defendant's credibility. (See, e.g., People v. Zambrano, supra, 124 Cal.App.4th at p. 243 [by forcing the defendant to call police officers liars, prosecutor used a "represensible method" to persuade the jury that defendant was not credible].)
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