The legal system almost always sides with the original testimony.  To do otherwise would be to suggest that eyewitnesses are prone to error, that they sometimes get confused, that prosecutors and investigators can artificially transform initial confusion into courtroom confidence.  Worse still, recanting witnesses often claim they were bullied into supporting the state’s theory with threat’s and false promises.  Credit that sort of claim and you undermine public confidence in the system.

Maintaining public confidence in the system has always been the bottom line.