the man they believed murdered ray liuzza. >> freeman was shot dead in 1995 while committing a robbery> with freeman dead, his previous testimony stood as evidence that thompson had committed the liuzza murder. >> we had all this evidence that freeman had lied in his original testimony and we wouldn't be able to use that evidence effectively if we couldn't cross examine him live on the stand. >> michael and gordon proposed an unorthodox solution. after freeman's testimony was read into the record, they would cross examine the empty witness chair as if freeman was on the stand. >> we took the evidence of the lies and put them into the form of questions. >> you told the jury you didn't know that john thompson was going to rob someone. isn't it true, however, that you sat out to rob someone. >> silence hung in the air after each question was posed giving the jury time to imagine freeman's response. >> you suggested in your testimony that you stole nothing from mr. liuzza at all. but you admitted you stole all of mr. liuzza's property, didn't you? >> we asked a series of questions culminat