{"id":319742,"date":"2025-11-25T18:50:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/legal\/the-doctrine-of-inherent-incredibility-in-carrington\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T18:50:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:50:54","slug":"the-doctrine-of-inherent-incredibility-in-carrington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742","title":{"rendered":"The doctrine of “inherent incredibility” in Carrington"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

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\u00a0The D.C. Court of Appeals will typically defer to the trial judge on any question pertaining to the credibility of a witness.\u00a0 After all, it was the trial judge, not the appellate court, who witnessed the testimony in person.<\/p>\n

A narrow exception to this deference is known as the doctrine of \u201cinherent incredibility.\u201d\u00a0 Judges are only human.\u00a0 A ruling can be so wrong \u2013 either logically or factually \u2013 that such deference is no longer merited.<\/p>\n

An early case that helped define this doctrine in the District<\/a> is the D.C. Circuit Court opinion in Jackson v. United States<\/em><\/a>, 353 F.2d 862 (D.C. Cir. 1965):\u00a0 \u201cWhile the trial judge\u2019s observation of demeanor must be given appropriate weight, it must be remembered that \u2018credibility\u2019 involves more than demeanor.\u00a0 It apprehends the overall evaluation of testimony in light of its rationality or internal consistency and the manner in which it hangs together with other evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The doctrine can be invoked \u201cif the person whose testimony is under scrutiny made allegations which seem highly questionable in the light of common experience and knowledge, or behaved in the manner strongly at variance with the way in which we would normally expect a similarly situated person to behave.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this particular case, the appellate court found that the police officer\u2019s testimony contained \u201cinternal contradictions\u201d and was \u201ccontrary to human experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The doctrine of \u201cinherent incredibility\u201d was invoked most recently in the D.C. Court of Appeals case of Brittany Carrington v. United States<\/em>, __ A.3d __ (D.C. 2025).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In that case, the appellant tried to invoke the doctrine on the basis of major inconsistencies in the testimony of government witnesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The D.C. Court of Appeals disagreed.\u00a0 The test for \u201cinherent incredibility\u201d is stringent, it held.\u00a0 \u00a0And \u201ca certain amount of inconsistency in the evidence is almost inevitable in any trial.\u201d\u00a0 After all, perceptions differ.\u00a0 Memories fade.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0The D.C. Court of Appeals will typically defer to the trial judge on any question pertaining to the credibility of a witness.\u00a0 After all, it was the trial judge, not the appellate court, who witnessed the testimony in person. A narrow exception to this deference is known as the doctrine of \u201cinherent incredibility.\u201d\u00a0 Judges are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[147364,39411,147363,92555],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-319742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal","tag-carrington","tag-doctrine","tag-incredibility","tag-inherent"],"yoast_head":"\nThe doctrine of "inherent incredibility" in Carrington - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The doctrine of "inherent incredibility" in Carrington - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0The D.C. Court of Appeals will typically defer to the trial judge on any question pertaining to the credibility of a witness.\u00a0 After all, it was the trial judge, not the appellate court, who witnessed the testimony in person. A narrow exception to this deference is known as the doctrine of \u201cinherent incredibility.\u201d\u00a0 Judges are […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-25T18:50:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"The doctrine of “inherent incredibility” in Carrington\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-25T18:50:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742\"},\"wordCount\":320,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Carrington\",\"Doctrine\",\"incredibility\",\"Inherent\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Legal\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742\",\"name\":\"The doctrine of \\\"inherent incredibility\\\" in Carrington - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-25T18:50:54+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The doctrine of “inherent incredibility” in Carrington\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The doctrine of \"inherent incredibility\" in Carrington - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=319742","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The doctrine of \"inherent incredibility\" in Carrington - Som2ny Network","og_description":"\u00a0The D.C. 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