Principle 2: Lead Evidence Only It’s important to understand that testimony collected or recorded by frontline documenters in the field can — and often does — serve as valuable lead evidence. Lead evidence is information that leads us to believe a crime may have happened. That information alone, however, is not sufficient to determine whether a crime actually happened. Further research must be done to determine whether an investigation should be launched. Preference for Live Testimony. Judges prefer that witnesses testify in person, because this makes it easier to evaluate the credibility of the witness and discourages false testimony. There are rare exceptions to this in which live testimony is not required, but it is much preferred. Right to Confrontation. Most criminal tribunals give the accused the right to have a face-to-face confrontation with witnesses who testify about the accused’s participation in the alleged crime. This is sometimes referred to as the “right to confrontation and cross-examination.” Accordingly, witnesses need to be informed that they may someday have to testify in court in the presence of the accused. Even though preliminary interviews are not likely to be used in court, this does not mean they are not valuable for advocacy purposes or in the early stages of an investigation. 144 VIDEO AS EVIDENCE: FILMING PRELIMINARY INTERVIEWS V 1.0 FILMING It is also important to know that rarely — if ever — will interviews collected by frontline documenters be used in a courtroom, because of two key legal doctrines: