If, on reexamination, the witness alleged differently in the new trial from what he testified in the other trial, wouldn't the witness be open to a charge of perjury in the previous trial?
Possibly, but a simple “I don’t recall” or “now that I think about it, I was wrong before” will take care of that. Witnesses change testimony all the time with no consequences. I worked IT for law firms for quite a while and this is something that would frustrate lawyers and blow up cases occasionally. Courts recognize that testimony is “to the best of your recollection”
In reality, perjury charges are extremely rare as courts do not want witnesses to be afraid to testify.
That is just not how it works in reality. Perjury charges are rare and convictions are extremely rare. I can’t seem to find it now but I remember a statistic that there were less than 100 cases in the entire US per year with only a dozen or so convictions and most of those had the sentence commuted. https://daily.jstor.org/why-is-perjury-so-rarely-prosecuted/
If, on reexamination, the witness alleged differently in the new trial from what he testified in the other trial, wouldn't the witness be open to a charge of perjury in the previous trial?
Possibly, but a simple “I don’t recall” or “now that I think about it, I was wrong before” will take care of that. Witnesses change testimony all the time with no consequences. I worked IT for law firms for quite a while and this is something that would frustrate lawyers and blow up cases occasionally. Courts recognize that testimony is “to the best of your recollection” In reality, perjury charges are extremely rare as courts do not want witnesses to be afraid to testify.
That is just not how it works in reality. Perjury charges are rare and convictions are extremely rare. I can’t seem to find it now but I remember a statistic that there were less than 100 cases in the entire US per year with only a dozen or so convictions and most of those had the sentence commuted.
https://daily.jstor.org/why-is-perjury-so-rarely-prosecuted/