Caribbean Court of Justice Ruling: Testimony of Deliberate Liars No Longer Automatically Rejected
October 17, 2023
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruled that not all testimony from people who lie under oath should be automatically rejected, leaving it up to the jury to determine credibility. A landmark decision made during a hearing in Barbados.
The entire testimony of people who deliberately lie under oath should not automatically be rejected. Instead, it is up to the jury to decide what aspects of that testimony they will regard as truthful.
That was the ruling in what is being considered a landmark decision handed down by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) yesterday in the first case it dealt with during the court’s itinerant hearing in Barbados.
The ruling has essentially erased the years-long legal adage, usually upheld by judicial officers, that once a person lied in one aspect of their testimony, their entire story could not be believed.
In that case, James Field versus the State, the CCJ, Barbados’ highest court, dismissed the appeal of Field who was convicted of manslaughter, but also ruled on the question of how to treat with a witness whom the jury considered may be deliberately lying on oath. (MB)
