Commonwealth v. Hodson

In preliminary remarks to the jury, the trial judge stated the following:

“Now, very, very, very seldom does it really ever happen that anyone comes [into the courtroom] and intentionally lies. Believe it or not, it does not happen. It happens maybe in Perry Mason or some Columbo story where the witness out-and-out lies, but it doesn’t really happen. There are witnesses who are mistaken, but they very seldom lie. So you will be looking for someone who is mistaken rather than searching out for a lie because it probably isn’t there.”

*931In an otherwise errorless trial in the Superior Court, these…