Today's testimony marked the strange pairing of a defendant admitting a police killing from the witness stand and a cross-examination by a prosecutor, Robert P. McCulloch, whose father was a police officer murdered years ago in the line of duty.

Both remained cool and conversational through the hour-long testimony.

McCulloch plans to seek a death sentence in the case.

Shepard detailed his role during direct examination by defense lawyer Robert Steele, who did not seem to interfere. Before the jury was brought in, Circuit Judge David Lee Vincent III asked Shepard if he really wanted to testify, and noted, "You're not going to hurt my feelings if you don't."

Shepard told the court how he became agitated at home in Berkeley the morning of Oct. 31, 2008, because he saw then-presidential candidate Barack Obama on TV, saying in an answer to a question that he would not seek endorsement from the controversial National of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan. Shepard said it made him mad enough to tear up his voter registration card and flush it down the toilet.

McCulloch asked how, as a convicted felon, he could have been registered to vote. Shepard insisted that he was.