Such is the reliance on the perception of judges regarding the 'body language' of witnesses that it would be a bit remiss for judges not to give the situation the most serious consideration.
The judge was not there but the witness was and aggressive questioning is not the way to arrive at the truth of the matter; indeed it could be counter-productive.
The judge sets the tone and U E did just that with a vengeance; which we are told is unusual, the chief prosecutor indicating that he had never seen the like in twenty years.
Snip
The judge decides whether the witness is credible and whether his testimony is credible. However, it is difficult for a judge to tell when a witness is telling the truth and when he is lying.
Why is the lie not recognized?
Does the mistake begin in legal education? How are future judges prepared? During your studies, you work on a completely clarified fact, and witnesses are questioned a few times during the legal preparatory service?
No wonder that a judge cannot correctly evaluate the behaviour of the witness and the nature of the testimony. Are witness statements wrongly assessed?
Even if the witnesses do not lie intentionally, human memory cannot be relied on one hundred percent. Is a crime reliably reconstructed? Much depends on concentrating on the course of action. Memory gaps arise, various details are omitted. The judge is thus given a distorted picture of the decisive events.
The ability to perceive varies from person to person. The ability to perceive depends on the current state, age and concentration on certain events. For example, details that could be important for the clarification of the facts are perceived incorrectly. The witnesses can interrogate each other, deceive themselves optically, confuse people and their names. Let's take a traffic accident as an example. This usually happens quickly, so that a person can hardly grasp all events correctly. Rather, he captures individual parts of the event and from this he unconsciously forms the "overall event".
Numerous researches have been conducted on this topic. They showed that events interpreted directly by people are often associated with other circumstances and only then stored. Later, the events are distorted.
Bei vielen Rechtsstreitigkeiten geht es nicht um schwierige Gesetzesauslegungen, sondern um die Beweise. Tipps gegen lügende Zeugen.
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