Is there a difference between the testimony of a witness and the evidence of evidence of the witness's free will?
Canada (Federal), Canada
The following excerpt is from R. v. Goldhart, [1996] 2 SCR 463, 1996 CanLII 214 (SCC):
44 Similarly, Rehnquist J., as he then was, in United States v. Ceccolini, 435 U.S. 268 (1978), explained the difference as follows, at pp. 276-77: Witnesses are not like guns or documents which remain hidden from view until one turns over a sofa or opens a filing cabinet. Witnesses can, and often do, come forward and offer evidence entirely of their own volition. And evaluated properly, the degree of free will necessary to dissipate the taint will very likely be found more often in the case of live-witness testimony than other kinds of evidence.
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