This study critically analyzed elicitation and response techniques in courtroom cross examination on murder cases which were heard at Bahir Dar higher court. Qualitative research, critical discourse analysis design was employed. Audio recorded data and observational notes were used to collect data. Twenty two sample extracts were taken from audio recorded data and observational notes. The data was analyzed using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis technique. The findings of the study revealed that though legal professionals employed several elicitation techniques during cross examination in courtroom trials, they frequently elicited to confirm, to clarify and to receive information. Another finding of the study showed that witnesses and defendants used different response techniques. They mostly used irrelevant response technique to give unrelated response which helped them to change the topic without providing enough information, illogical response technique which was used to persuade the legal professionals without providing true evidence about the case and denial response technique which was used to deceit the legal professionals through technical use of language. The findings uncovered that there were power inequalities between courtroom participants in the trial. Power abuse was mainly used by the powerful group to dominate or abuse the powerless group. For example, legal professionals restricted the witnesses and defendants from asking unclear idea. The researcher recommended that the data of the current study was taken from audio recorded documents. It was impossible to manage non-verbal language. Based on this limitation the researcher recommended that further study can be done through the use of video recorded data and non-verbal language can be one of discourse research area. Key terms: CDA, courtroom, text, power and D