BB: If a witness battles and even at times is, you know, shown not to be telling the truth, does that mean they can still be found innocent?
JG: In a nutshell, yes. I think its very important because theres been a lot of public discussion that Oscar is doing badly in court, hes been evasive and argumentative, and Gerrie Nel has been saying that hes lying. Even if we accept all that, we must not assume that that will mean that automatically the judge is going to find him guilty or reject his defence because a good judge, a competent judge, will have in her memory for instance
(the famous case of Timothy Evans was cited here where he lied, was evasive and argumentative, was found guilty and hanged but 16 years later was posthumously pardoned. He goes on and names a video of this true story).
It illustrates that telling lies in court and being bad, being evasive, doesnt automatically mean that youre guilty. Innocent people lie for all kinds of reasons. They lie in order to make a bad story good. They lie in order to make a weak story stronger
Judge Greenland does not say innocent people lie all the time on the stand. He says innocent people lie for all kinds of reasons. However, innocent people are not trying to get away with something but rather trying to enhance their story to bolster the fact that theyre innocent.
If youve watched all Judge Greenlands videos you would know and understand why hes so angry with Masipas verdict because it goes against what he believes the proper outcome should have been based on both the facts and the law.
I put it to you that if anyone was to lie all the time it would be a guilty person whos trying to get away with a crime theyve committed.