Innocent Witnesses

An additional principle is that the witnesses must not have committed the crime with which they are charging the accused. This is what happened to the “woman taken in adultery” (John 8:3-11). The men accusing her, turned and walked away, because they knew they were guilty of the same sin.

But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her (John 8:7).

I suspect that a group of men would find it hard to enter a house to catch a woman in the act of adultery and then make her stand in front of them, without falling into lust along the way. Lust was the same as adultery to Jesus (Matt 5:28). Lust is not a crime, because it is hidden from witnesses in the mind, but it is sufficient to disqualify a witness to adultery.