Is this the new Saudi Arabia? As if she needed more than one witness. It does say that she was giving another woman a test drive. So that person should have come forward to help.

Insanity!? "Too honest" to give evidence? Are they out of their mind? The woman was robbed and now get's no justice because she's honest? Sounds like one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situations to me. That's got to be the strangest thing I'd ever heard. Would the judge rather her be a chronic liar?

This kind of thing goes against logic. It seems that judges in this country have no commonsense.
How can you question her evidence when the judge claims that she is an honest person.
Do you have to be slightly shady just so the jury can give a fair verdict?

I am not familiar with the law of the UK but that sounds insane. That judge should be tied to a chair and beaten repeatedly. Never have I heard the excuse of being too honest.

Here in the U.S. though the prosecuting attorney has to share evidence or information for or against the defendant prior to trial so they can ready themselves. The defense on the other hand does not have to share any evidence or information until it comes out in the trial.

Raist

No doubt it is simply because the whole legal system has become so endemically corrupted like everything else that the poor judge didn't know what to do.

No lying or twisting the facts, no under the counter pay-offs, no smart*ss lawyers getting hard core crims off the hook. The judge was obviously in uncharted waters so he paniced and threw the case out...

At Tuesday's trial, Judge Tabor said: 'Denise Dawson was a partic­ularly impressive witness because she showed courage, clarity of thought and was undoubtedly honest.'

But he told Bristol Crown Court it was her word against Perks' and that was not enough to support a conviction.

He added: 'The jury may lend more weight to her evidence than her facts allow. You cannot be sure she got it right.'

I have heard it all now.
This just blows my mind. Sounds like Judges in the UK are just as screwed up as many of the judges here in the US.

Ridiculous (my word of the day). And clearly insanity at its best.

[edit on 1/14/2009 by greeneyedleo]

The message here is obviously: do whatever you want to honest people because they are simply too honest to give an account of the events. But stay away from those liars man, oh how you will suffer if you do anything to a liar!

But he told Bristol Crown Court it was her word against Perks' and that was not enough to support a conviction.

He added: 'The jury may lend more weight to her evidence than her facts allow. You cannot be sure she got it right.'

So the accused is "innocent until proven guilty", fine.
The victim, having picked the man out of a line up and testified against him was too convincing for a jury and would definitely have gotten a conviction.
There was not enough evidence, other than the testimony, to convict him and the testimony on its own would be "her word against his".
The victim was under so much stress during the ordeal that she may not have correctly remembered the attacked and thus, picked the wrong man in the line up.

I can see their point and I assume that this adhere's to the standards of law in Britain. However, there must be other cases of convictions based solely on eye-witness testimony?

[edit on 14-1-2009 by george_gaz]

Disclaimer: I'm a theist but not of the Abrahamic faiths. I have minor biblical scholar and scriptural skills. Also I am not a scientific/legal or medical expert in any field. Beware of my Contagious Memes! & watch out that you don't get cut on my Occams razor.All of this is my personal conjecture and should not be considered the absolute or most definitive state of things as they really are. Use this information at your own risk! I accept no liability if your ideology comes crashing down around you with accompanying consequences!

Explanation: thats crazy justice and makes me both and want to / . What kind of judge makes a fubar ruling like that? What was he on ? I He needs his head and his authority and then he needs to be and all the little pieces publicly . That judge is a cake loony and I would too if I was that poor woman.

Personal disclosure: Damn state sanctioned revenge via the worst state sanctioned protection racket/scam scheme devised (Justice has now become a like concept....its everywhere but none of it can be truly believed!),
I'll take care of my problems myself from now on thank you very much!

Starred and Flagged

Edited to add the above line and fix a single misspelled word.

[edit on 14-1-2009 by OmegaLogos]

ok, so take away the shock you feel at the emotive title and consider the actual case. The judge HAD to throw the case out, thats how it works.

Back in the days of the old bailly, London (long before america was a nation) people used to stand outside the court with a strand of straw sticking from their shoe, a lawyer would then know that these people would sell their 'witness testimony' for a small fee.

In court the man would swear blind that he had seen the defendant commit the crime, thus we get the phrase 'straw man' i.e. an argument with no proof.

The legal system adapted and so now you can't be convicted on witness testamony alone, a case needs REAL evidence.

hehe now most of you UFO, Big Foot, Jesus, etc people don't care about real evidence but the courts do.

'Better ten guilty men go free than one innocent man in jailed'

The woman was shocked, confused and is likely to be confused, even really honest people get confused -maybe she's convinced herself it was him because he looks a bit like the guy, there are millions of case studies in which people have been tricked into thinking they saw something they didn't -anyone that's been to a magic show knows just how easy it is to tick the human brain into being #SURE# it saw something it didn't.

Just picture yourself in the dock while the jury swallow every word of some crazy old ladys story, you're looking at 6to9 for a crime you didn't commit just because some sweet little ol' dear thinks you look like someone else.

There are plenty of cases that have been taken purely on witness accounts and circumstantial evidence. There are plenty of cases that are taken as one person's word against another. This is just silly.