You may think that once the state rests its case, it's done all it can. But that's not true at all. Remember, the state will be cross-examining all of the defense's witnesses and may be able to elicit things they never could have by calling a witness for direct exam.
Also, once the defense finishes, the state will be allowed a rebuttal case wherein they can put on their own witnesses to rebut the defense's case in chief. By the same token, the defense will be allowed surrebuttal, or rebuttal of the state's rebuttal. Got that? ;-)
Though it may seem the state is done, we will see more from the state in the form of cross-exam of defense witnesses and the state's rebuttal case.
And, of course, both sides will present closing arguments. This is when a good attorney ties together all the bits and pieces of circumstantial evidence (large and small) into a cohesive overall picture. These people have been looking at this evidence for 3 yrs. They know far more than we do -- we may even be surprised at the way in which some evidence ties in or realize that something we thought not to be a big deal really is a huge deal.
If people think that there were a lot of objections and side-bars during the state's case...just wait until the defense starts. State will bombard with objections during direct testimony of witnesses.
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