And when the increasingly elastic speedy-trial rules of the Bronx were finally stretched too far by delay after delay, prosecutors would sometimes drop the cases as if they were never quite worth their time anyway.
The defence secretary can change any of the trial rules at any time.
But under trial rules, the testimony of one member of a group of defendants cannot be used against the others.
I turn next to an examination of the jury trial rule in light of the double jeopardy policies it is now belatedly thought to advance.
A few of them even join more than one at the same time, a violation of trial rules that can endanger volunteers.
"In terms of institutional knowledge, we didn't have any of that," said Eric Madiar, the Senate president's chief legal counsel, who said he had spent scores of hours in recent weeks working with others on 8 to 10 drafts of trial rules (and consulting books like "Impeachment: A Handbook," by Charles L. Black Jr., a leading authority on constitutional law).
This Court has therefore been particularly suspicious of state trial rules which provide nonreciprocal benefits to the State when the lack of reciprocity interferes with the defendant's ability to secure a fair trial.
"She caught some procedural violations of the trial rules," says a family member.
If Snowden were arrested today, extradited to the United States, and brought to trial, the rules of evidence would prevent him from arguing that his actions were necessary to reveal governmental wrongdoing.
Unlike a court trial, normal rules of evidence do not apply, and the hearing officer controlling the inquest has wide latitude in allowing hearsay, opinion and non-responsive answers.
He began the next decade in his film career as a Marine colonel put on trial in Rules of Engagement, co-starred with Bruce Willis for a third time in the supernatural thriller Unbreakable, and starred in the 2000 remake of the 1971 film Shaft.
