Repeat the question

QC Iain Morley, in his book “The Devil’s Advocate,” teaches: don’t ask a witness about the same thing many times. Because you’re going to make things worse. Rules of this kind are signposts rather than orders. More than five years ago, I attended a training course in which QC Mr Morley gave an example of when this rule could not be followed. Ideally, I will repeat the example as I remembered it: The case concerned dramatic events in Africa. QC Mr Morley asked the accused: “Mr President, please tell the court how it feels to see the bodies of thousands of people murdered lying on the streets of the city where you were in power.”

The accused replied: “We did this and that, we tried for this and that, we prepared this and that, we sought it and that, and so on.” For almost an hour.
So Mr Morley asked again, “Mr. President, please tell the court how it feels to see the bodies of thousands of people murdered, lying on the streets of the city where you were in power.”
The accused replied: “We did this and that, we tried for this and that, we prepared this and that, we sought it and that, and so on, and so on.” For another hour.
Then QC I. Morley asked the same question a third time: “Mr. President ..”