(August 3, 2017 at 9:24 am)Mister Agenda Wrote:
I'd say it's more the other way around. You look for corroboration (or dis-corroboration) of the testimony. Each individual testament is a claim, but comparing the claims to each other can yield contextual evidence relevant to whether the person is more or less likely to by lying or misremembering or mistaken. Finding other witnesses who can confirm or disconfirm other parts of their story can be useful, like someone seeing one of the testifiers walk into the place a particular time. You can determine other particulars, like if any of the testifiers have relevant criminal records or histories. The tone of the situation changes pretty significantly if one of the testifiers turns out to be involved in organized crime and witness intimidation.
The idea that naked testimony would legitimately be accepted as sufficient evidence to convict rather than a claim to be investigated is troubling. Even without physical evidence (and why would there not be physical evidence?), you need to know who the people testifying are, what their biases might be, what motives might they have to lie, how reliable their recollections are in general, and so forth.
Who said that the claim wasn't investigated.... other means of corroboration, simply didn't result in any definitive evidence. Now I didn't get into making up individual detailed testimonies for each person, with background information and such. And I agree, it's going to depend on the details (some of which may give reason to doubt). But what if you do not have any good reason to doubt. The testimony is good, and shows a reasonable difference, some fairly similar, some from a different perspective who didn't actually seen me hit the person, but seen immediately after. There's no mob boss, or signs of intimidation, that another person did the crime, and coerced everyone into telling a different story. I was held after the fact, so there is no chance of mistaken identity. But no other corroborating evidence besides the testimony which points to me.
Basically is there any way, in which the testimony is considered part of the body of facts and information which indicate that the proposition that I assaulted the other person is true?
Secondly, could this be enough to form a rational conclusion reasonable enough to convict me of wrong doing?
It is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man. - Alexander Vilenkin
If I am shown my error, I will be the first to throw my books into the fire. - Martin Luther
If I am shown my error, I will be the first to throw my books into the fire. - Martin Luther