Flashcards
Defendants Bad Character - 4
Cards in this deck (20)
- 1s101 Criminal Justice Act 2003Defendant's bad character has to pass through one of the 7 gateways to be admissible under s101(1)
- 2What are the seven gateways?a) Agreement of parties
b) D revels it himself
c) Important explantory evidence
d) Relevant to an important matter in issue between D and P
e) Substantial probative value in issue between Co-Defendant's
f) Correcting a false impression given by D
g) D has attacked the character of another - 3a) Agreement of partiesBoth the defendant's party and prosecutions party agree to the bad character evidence to be admissible
- 4b) D revels it himselfThe defendant reveals the bad character evidence himself, this could be through a cross-examination or examination in chief.
- 5c) Important explanatory evidenceThis may be used by either the prosecution or the defendant, for example against a co-defendant.
s102 clarifies it would be important explanatory evidence if the Jury or court would find it difficult or impossible to understand the case without the evidence. - 6R v Edwards and Chohan [2006]The identification was the key issue of the case. The eyewitness claimed they had recognised the defendant as the killer. This was because he was a heroin dealer. She had to say he was a heroin dealer for the evidence to make sense.
- 7d) Relevant to an important matter in issue between D and PSomething which is relevant to show guilt or credibility of the defendant.
Also to show a propensity to commit similar offences charged with. - 8R v Smith [1916]Smith was a con man, and had 7 illegal marriages. In three of them he took out personal insurance for them, and then killed them.
Inicially, he was only charaged for the murder of one of them. Was it appropiate to bring the evidence of the murder to the two other trials for murder, due to them being killed in similar circumstances?
It was, and this is where the rule came about. - 9s103(1) CJA 2003Overall, added propensity to offend as a matter in issue which is relevant.
s103(1)(a): Posenity to commit offences of the kind charged with, except where the propensity makes them no more likely to have committed the offence.
s103(1)(b): whether D has the propensity to be untruthful, except when it is not suggested the defendant's case is untruthful. - 10R v Campbell [2007]Extra if needed
- 11R v Jarvis [2008]Extra if needed
- 12R v N [2014]Extra if needed
- 13s103(2) CJA 2003Only offences of the same description and offences of the same category can be used to show propensity.
Only two categories established by Home secretary are theft offences and sexual offences.
(However, just because it does not fall into the same category or same description does not mean they will not automatically be admissible). - 14R v Hanson [2005]Judge needs to answer three questions on whether to allow the evidence through gateway D or not.
Q1. Does the history of past convictions establish a propensity to commit the present offence?
Q2. Does that make it more likely that D committed the offence charged?
Q3. Is it unjust to rely on these past convictions and will proceedings be rendered unfair by their admission? - 15R v Hanson [2005] ExtrasThere is no requirement for a minimum number of past offences
Striking simularities between the previous and current offence will aid the relevance.
The older the offence is, the more likely it will have an adverse affect on procedings. - 16R v Brima [2007]Muder, alleged to have stabbed someone with a knife. Had recent convictions (within the last three years), for ABH and robbery using a knife. The judge allowed this evidence under s101(1)(d), as P argued D had a popensity to commit offences of volence with knifes. CA agreed.
However be careful, as popensity must be relevant. - 17Will bad character evidence be automatically admissible if they pass through the gate ways?No, they have to contend with R v Sang's probative v prejuidical effect (the Judge's discretion of not allow bad character evidence).
Also, s78 PACE may be relevant (gateway D and G is superseded by s101(3)) - 18s101(3) CJA 2003The court can exclude evidence for gateway D and G if it appears the admissition of the evidence would lead to an adverse effect on the fairness of proceedings
- 19What if one co-defendant has previous convictions?The other co-defendant should not miss out on their good character evidence just because of the other person's bad character evidence
- 20Missing directing Jury cases
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- Law of Evidence (Character Evidence) Flashcards on Defendants Bad Character - 4, created by James Dolton on 08/02/2018.
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