Given a defendant apparently so benign -- young and slight, well spoken, with a handsome, dark face and bright white in his almond eyes -- the prosecutor's combative strategy ran the risk of a backfire.
The cross-examination was combative but subdued, with the prosecutor, John McConnell, reacting alternately with incredulity and sarcasm.
But the lack of a final resolution of his fate did not stave off serious questions and deep concerns today about the peculiarly combative relationship in Italy between prosecutors and politicians and about whether it had gone too far.
People often compare Spitzer with Rudy Giuliani, for his aggressive tenure as a prosecutor and for his combative, enemy-strewn governing style.
Then, just after 4 p.m., the chief prosecutor, Alan Vinegrad, began a combative final summation that tried to answer Mr. Fischetti's most persuasive points without repeating the concise narrative the other prosecutor, Mr. Smith, had delivered in the morning.
He is no stranger to combative situations, as a former county prosecutor in Amarillo, Texas; a former plaintiff's lawyer in business fraud cases; and former director of the insurance fraud division for the state of New Mexico.
He also admonished Blagojevich for his media circus and combative public relations battle with federal prosecutors, calling it an example of "foolish and unworthy tactics" deliberately designed to "de-legitimize" the investigation, the investigators and the two trials that followed.
Her decision to work as legal adviser to Bahrain's king, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, who has been blamed by rights groups for systematic torture and repression, raised eyebrows, but sources at her chambers in Doughty Street, London, say she is a tough, combative lawyer with experience gained as a prosecutor on the UN's Lebanon war crimes tribunal.
The charges drew a combative response from the Brookses even before prosecutors announced the details.
At other times, she was combative, declaring that she had already answered a prosecutor's question.
Deputy District Attorney Debra Archuleta brings a combative style that may serve her as a prosecutor but would not translate well to the bench.
