character witness

[kjc0123]

What's the meaning of "character witness" in the following sentence?

When Woody Harrelson showed up as a character witness, the actor accused the judge of keeping the truth from the jury. Harrelson was nearly jailed for contempt.

[andy hughes]

The notion of speaking up for a person on trial, based on the concept that the character witness knows the defendent well, and can attest to their previous good character, which is hopefully an aid to their defence. Under cross-examination, when the prosecution lawyer wil attenpt to discredit the character witness's testimony, things can get a little heated, as appears to have been the case here. Unfortunately, if someone speaking up for your good character gets into a spat with Council bad enough to have the judge step in to settle it, that can have the opposite of the desired effect!

[Peter Pedant]

it is different to a witness to fact - he obviously will bear witness to what happened.

An expert witness can give an opinion as to what happened (which witnesses to fact cannot)

A character witness bears witness to the good character of the accused. He does so after the verdict and it part of the sentencing process.

UNFORTUNATELY some English judges will not listen to pleas in mitigation if the accused has pleaded not guilty and put the Crown to the task of proving the case.

This could of course have happened here - but p*ssing off the judge in  a case is never a good idea.