Everything about Testify totally explained
For Tony Palmer's film about Shostakovich, see Testimony (film)law and in
religion,
testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter.
Legal testimony
In the
law,
testimony is a form of
evidence that's obtained from a
witness who makes a solemn statement or declaration of fact. Testimony may be oral or written, and it's usually made by
oath or
affirmation under penalty of
perjury. Unless a witness is testifying as an
expert witness, testimony in the form of opinions or inferences is generally limited to those opinions or inferences that are rationally based on the perceptions of the witness and are helpful to a clear understanding of the witness' testimony.
A
subpoena commands a person to appear. It is compulsory to comply.
When a witness is asked a question, the opposing attorney can raise an
objection (
(External Link
)), which is a legal move to disallow an improper question, preferably before the witness answers, and mentioning one of the standard reasons, including:
- argumentative or inflammatory
- asked and answered
- best evidence rule
- calls for speculation
- calls for a conclusion
- compound question or narrative
- hearsay
- irrelevant, immaterial, incompetent (this is actually not a proper objection because the term "incompetent" is meaningless and the words "irrelevant" and "immaterial" have the same meaning under the Federal Rules of Evidence).
- lack of foundation
- leading question
- privilege
- vague
- ultimate issue testimony
There may also be an objection to the answer, including:
- non-responsive
Up until the mid-20th century, in much of the
United States, an attorney often had to follow an objection with an
exception to preserve the issue for appeal. If an attorney failed to "take an exception" immediately after the court's ruling on the objection, he waived his client's right to appeal the issue. Exceptions have since been abolished, due to the widespread recognition that forcing lawyers to take them was a waste of time.
Religious testimony
In
religion, testimony generally involves an inward belief or outward profession of faith or of personal religious experience.
Christians in general use the term "testify" or "to give your testimony" to mean "the story of how you became a Christian" (or less commonly it may refer to a specific event in a Christian's life in which God has done something deemed particularly worth sharing). Christians often give their testimony at their own
baptism or at
evangelistic events, where non-Christians are able to hear what God has done in their lives. In the current age of the internet, many Christians have also placed their testimonies on the internet.
In some
religions (most notably
Mormonism and
Islam) many adherents testify as a profession of their
faith, often to a congregation of believers. In
Mormonism, testifying is also referred to as "bearing one's testimony," and often involves the sharing of personal experience—ranging from a simple anecdote to an account of personal
revelation—followed by a statement of belief that has been confirmed by this experience.
Testimony in literature
Some published
oral or written
autobiographical narratives are considered "
testimonial literature" particularly when they present
evidence or
first person accounts of
human rights abuses,
violence and
war, and living under conditions of social
oppression. This usage of the term comes originally from
Latin America and the Spanish term
"testimonio" when it emerged from human rights
tribunals,
truth commissions, and other
international human rights instruments in countries such as
Chile and
Argentina. One of the most famous, though controversial, of these works to be translated into English is
I, Rigoberta Menchú. The autobiographies of
Frederick Douglass can be considered among the earliest significant English-language works in this
genre.
Testimony in Philosophy
In
philosophy, a testimony is known as
Statements that are based on personal experience or personal knowledge. A statement is accepted on the basis of person's
testimony if his or her asserting it renders it acceptable. We can also, rationally accept a claim on the basis of another persons testimony unless (1. the claim is
implausible; 2. The person or the source in which the
claim is quoted lacks
credibility; 3. The claim goes beyond what the person could know from his or her own
experience and competence.)
Further Information
Get more info on 'Testify'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://testimony.totallyexplained.com">Testimony Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |