You should take into account these or any other possibilities that might occur to you in evaluating his testimony. Also, you might consider the extent to which any particular testimony fits in with all the other evidence in the case. “Neither is there any reason to distinguish law enforcement witnesses from lay witnesses.” Alito also noted that allowing civil actions against grand jury witnesses could subvert grand jury secrecy. How, then, do you determine the accuracy or reliability of any witness's testimony? There is nothing in the literal meanings of the words that says that the witness is lying. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the principle functioned as a mandatory presumption that a witness was unreliable if they previously lied while offering testimony. Robert Hill Schwartz, Mr. Margolies's lawyer, asked, referring to Mr. Oestericher. A witness who is angry or upset may appear to be less than objective. In the second place, he was able to negotiate a plea which considerably reduced the total scope of the sentences that might have been imposed upon him had he been convicted of all his wrongdoing; and, finally, he hopes - as he specifically told you - that the testimony he gave in this case will induce the judge before whom he pleaded guilty to be lenient in imposing sentence. Mr. Torres said Mr. Oestericher suggested Mr. Nash on his own. There is a "charge" (instruction) a Judge will give the jury as a guide to how they can evaluate, or weigh, the strength of witness's tesimony, in their deliberations and thereby their verdict - That charge advises the jury that if they think a witness intentionally lied about even just one point or issue, they can choose to disregard that witness's entire testimony; or they can choose to believe one or more portions of that … A prosecution witness testified yesterday that he had lied before a state grand jury investigating the murders of two employees of a diamond company and three CBS employees ''because I feared for my life.''. If you are testifying before the grand jury, there will not be a defense attorney present. They could have caused him to make up imaginary facts in order to incriminate some or all of the defendants. Lawyers aren't cheap, and he endured multiple grand jury proceedings because of Paul's testimony. The reason I don't like the word is that it implies that a witness who is not credible must somehow be lying, and that isn't necessarily so. “Allowing §1983 actions against grand jury witnesses would … Five who testified in the case admit they lied to … A Personal Interest. Mr. Torres also told the jury that on April 12, 1982 - the day that Miss Barbera was shot and the three CBS employes were killed at a West Side parking lot while trying to help her - Mr. Nash returned to midtown and confessed to him that he ''just shot three people.'' "Clearly some were not telling the truth,” Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch said in an interview with KTRS radio on Friday. If a witness had a motive to lie, you may consider whether and to what extent, if any, that motive affected the truthfulness of that witness's testimony. Or, they could have caused him to color existing facts to make appear to be more incriminatory than they actually were. This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. It is not for me to speculate as to whether you have found any or all of the witnesses in this case to have lied in the sense of having said things they knew to be untrue. Some witnesses were clearly lying when they spoke to a grand jury about the August police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., according to … If a witness did not have a motive to lie, you may consider that as well in evaluating the witness's truthfulness.4 An accomplice is a person who is guilty of - and could be prosecuted for - any crime or crimes of which the defendants are accused. Witnesses (revised) ... Or, if you think the witness lied about some things, but told the truth about others, you may simply accept the part that you think is true and These circumstances could have affected Lindenauer in at least three possible ways. This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. 402, 411 (1978). Mr. Margolies is now serving a 28-year Federal prison term for fraud. Ferguson witnesses admit they lied to grand jury. Under Missouri law, McCulloch would only implicate himself if he charged "Witness 40" or other witnesses with perjury if he "knowingly" allowed them to lie to the grand jury. But, of course, you don't have to do so. In exercising your authority in this regard, perhaps the single most important thing you must consider is the credibility of the witnesses who appear before you. It is an awesome responsibility, but the Constitution and statutes do not give you or me any authority to supervise its exercise. The Kansas City Star that a federal investigator in the firefighters’ explosion case pressured them to lie. 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