Explain the requirements to ensure witness competence. If there are questions regarding the competence of a witness, who determines if the witness is competent?
What will be an ideal response?
The witness who is testifying must be competent to testify. This standard requires that the witness
testify under oath and swear (or affirm) that the testimony the witness is about to give is “the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” This, in turn, requires that the witness understand what it means
to tell the truth. The witness also must have personal knowledge about the subject of his or her testimony
(i.e., he/she saw, heard, felt, tasted, or smelled something relevant to the case) and must be able to
recollect and describe what happened. Under this standard, a very young child might not be competent
to testify; a child of age 3 or 4 might not understand the meaning of telling the truth and might not have
the language skills to be able to accurately describe what he/she saw or heard. Similarly, a person with a
mental illness or an eyewitness to a crime who was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of
the crime might be ruled incompetent to testify. If there are questions about the competence of a
potential witness, the judge hearing the case must determine whether the witness is competent.
You might also like to view...
The Miranda warning is required during questioning from one private citizen to another private citizen
a. True b. False Indicate whether the statement is true or false
When survey research respondents compress time when answering about past events it is called ______________
Fill in the blank(s) with correct word
All of the following are types of endogenous change EXCEPT ______.
A. testing B. maturation C. regression D. selection bias
According to INTERPOL, cybercrime is one of the fastest growing areas of crime
a. True b. False Indicate whether the statement is true or false