Impeachment of a witness essays

Impeachment of a witness essays In court cases you need strong evidence in the case to prove or disprove guilt. There are many different types of evidence in a case weather it is hard evidence from a crime such as weapon, photos of scene, or other hard evidence. But one of the most important types of evidence is lay witnesses and expert witnesses. No other evidence speaks to the jury or judge in a case like this evidence. Seeing a lay witness tell their story of fact to a jury of what happened or what they saw greatly impacts a case because the jury can see and hear the person and that alone is a great impact to them more so than hard evidence. Expect witnesses while not at the scene of the crime also hold a lot of weight behind them. They look at a section aspect of the crime weather it is ballistics, medical, both physical and physiological, and even a mechanic can be considered expert witnesses. These expert witnesses can prove facts in a case and help back up other lay witnesses or hard evidence. And because th ese people are experts in their field this holds a great deal of weight with jurys decisions. There is only one problem with witness evidence and thats the fact that they can have their character impeached. Which means all that factual information they have told to the jury or judge may be deemed false or shaky in the courts eyes and can partially or totally destroy the weight they once held. But of course like many things in the court system its a two way street a witness can have their character rehabilitated which can give back some, most, or all of their creditability to the court system. While most of these methods for impeachment or rehabilitation of a witness are well thought out, and legally sound, and morally right to the court system some methods allowed by the court are not right and in some ways violate a persons rights. A witnesss creditability is the main factor in whether or not what they...