Voir Dire's Credibility In The Criminal Justice System
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In a court of law it is important to know that your witness to the crime is a competent witness. Many times in court a person is competent to testify, usually figuring out if a person is competent is not a problem because they have the Voir dire examination. The Voir Dire figure out if they are competent. When having a witness who is competent they also have to be credible. You never really know the credibility of a witness until you are in court. Children are a perfect example of not exactly being credible witnesses.
“There is no presumption at a certain age a child is incompetent (700 E.C.). A child is able to testify when he or she has the ability to recollect events, understand and answer questions, understand the necessity for telling the truth, and knows it is wrong to tell a lie. The younger the child, the more likely that child will be unable to meet all three-prongs.” (pg.89).Recently in class, we talked about children at schools saying they have been abused. In instances like that you have to figure out if they are credible or not. Better than figuring out if they are credible or not would be to figure out who the parents are of the child. It dawned…show more content… “Most witnesses remain competent. Credibility is the weight given to the witness testimony or the believability of the testimony. The trier of fact may believe all of the testimony, may believe it in part, or disbelieve the testimony (780/785 E.C.)”. The witness credibility can make or break a case, if the witness cannot remember what the perpetrator looked like in a field show up or six pack it gives doubt to the jury. Another possible doubt would be if the witness could not remember the day or time frame the crime happened. When a witness is not credible it really shows that they can’t be trusted. Once the jury comes to an agreement that the credibility of a witness is no good they can then impeach him or