In courtroom dramas, two things always happen:
1. Everyone takes an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
2. At some point, a lawyer forcefully insists that some witness answer a question with simple yes or no, with no further information.
But if you answer a question with a simple yes or no when more specific information is necessary, you're not telling the whole truth, and you're not telling nothing but the truth.
On TV, they always present this situation as the evil witness is cowed into answering with an incriminatory yes or no, and implicates the bad guy, and the good guy wins. But in real life what are you supposed to do if you're on the stand and the lawyer questioning insist that you answer in a way that would be perjury?
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