Definition

To recant is to publicly take back or withdraw a statement, opinion, or belief, often after having previously held or advocated for it.

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Excerpts from News Articles

Both have read the Love case. Either they’d have to recant their earlier positions or they today don’t care about judicial activism. I ask myself, ‘in what sense are Craven and Leeser actually conservatives, the former being pro-Republic, pro-Voice, insouciant about judicial activism and the latter being against s.

Logo 2023-04-19 The Spectator

Domestic violence prosecutions are often difficult because victims routinely recant or refuse to testify, not because the event didn’t actually happen, but because they are still entwined with the person who hurt them. Maybe they don’t want him to get in legal trouble, or they are financially dependent on him, or they depend on him for housing, or they’re just human beings caught in an unhealthy spiral of misplaced love, reflexive justification and toxic self-blame.

Logo 2023-04-21 CNN News

Increasingly, you must agree with the Left, or you will be hounded until you do. We have seen repeated examples of actors and public figures with social clout voicing simple questions only to find themselves facing cancellation if they did not immediately recant and re-affirm their dedication to the activist cause.

Logo 2023-04-22 The Spectator

James Earl Ray , a career small-time criminal who became the object of a more than two-month manhunt before he was captured in England , pled guilty to the shooting and received a 99-year prison sentence. He quickly recanted his plea and spent the rest of his life claiming that he had been framed by a conspiracy that was really responsible for King’s assassination .


On March 10, 1969, the accused assassin, a white man, James Earl Ray, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Ray later recanted his confession, claiming lawyers had coerced him into confessing and that he was the victim of a conspiracy. In a surprising turn of events, members of the King family eventually came to Ray’s defense.


During a separate interview, Chen initially denied having any direct contact with the Chinese government, according to court documents, though he later recanted .

Logo 2023-04-17 CNN News

At trial, three people who have since recanted testified that Green had confessed to the shooting. The all-white jury convicted Green of murder. A judge sentenced him to death.

Logo 2023-04-17 The Washington Post

Ms Chaudhry said the “evidence includes video footage from the vehicle where this episode took place, witness testimony from the driver and others who both saw and heard the episode, and most importantly, two written statements from the woman recanting these allegations”.

Logo 2023-04-18 EURO News

A Russian man who said he had killed children and other civilians while serving with the Wagner private military company in Ukraine appears to have recanted the claim, suggesting he was blackmailed into making it.

Logo 2023-04-18 CNN News

The convictions of Glass and Rayford relied heavily on the testimony of just two witnesses who later recanted their stories. During a five-year investigation, defense investigators found multiple other witnesses who said, “Oh no, they weren’t the shooters, they never had a gun,” Della Donna said.

Logo 2023-04-20 The Guardian