In the absence of some exceptional feature, such as the effect of an acquittal on the credibility of a confession or the evidence of a prosecution witness, evidence of the. The relevant section in archbold 2016 adducing evidence of relevant previous acquittal 4400 begins with the following statement of law. The admissibility of bad character and hearsay evidence is outlined in the criminal justice act 2003. Section 98 defines bad character as evidence of a persons disposition towards, misconduct. Section 666 permits the crown to adduce evidence of bad character to rebut the good character evidence.
According to criminal justice act 2003, bad character evidence is only admissible in any of these situations. Bad reputation how can a claimants character affect. Ds bad character section 1011 gateway g section 1011 g allows for the admission of evidence of bad character where a defendant has made an attack on another persons character. The particulars of that bad character evidence are as follows. It abolished most of the old common law rules relating to the admissibility of such evidence although certain specific common law. S 1031a states that propensity to commit offences is an important matter in issue between the prosecution and the defence see mle 11th edn pp 5235256. This is, however, mainly in the context of bad character rather than good character. Evidence of character in civil and criminal proceedings. Bad character adduced by codefendant practice notes.
The state is not allowed, in the first instance, to offer evidence of the defendant. The grobbelaar case is an extreme example, but it does show the potential strength of adducing evidence as to the claimants bad reputation and by doing this a defendant can significantly reduce damages it may have to pay in a successful defamation claim. Then in criminal proceedings we are looking at the character of the. Where an accused has given evidence against a coaccused, counsel for that coaccused may crossexamine him as to his bad character. The mercy rule allows a criminal defendant to offer evidence of his or her good character as a defense to criminal charges. Admissible evidence is any document, testimony, or tangible evidence used in a court of law. Evidence of bad character not amounting to an offence 8. Under s 99 the criminal justice act 2003 cra 2003, evidence of bad character is defined as evidence of or disposition towards, misconduct. The question is whether this is admissible as it could considerably damage the defendants reputation and credibility if they considered to be of bad character. Is evidence of bad character admissible in criminal trials. Character evidence is more frequently introduced in criminal cases than in civil. Bad character evidence is evidence of, or a disposition towards misconduct. Evidence is typically introduced to a judge or a jury to prove a point or element in a case.
When the accused adduces evidence of good character, the crown may adduce evidence of bad character, in order to level the playing field and provide the trier of fact with an accurate view of the accuseds character. Crown applied for leave to adduce this incident as evidence of bad character. Misconduct is defined as the commission of an offence or other reprehensible behaviour. Evidence of good character isnt allowed for the purpose of arguing that the defendant committed the crime, but shouldnt be convicted. Adducing evidence of a defendants bad character in chief. Bad character evidence royal commission into institutional. This nondefendants bad character is governed by s100 of the act but first of all, what is bad character. There certainly is such a thing as character evidence i.
In the united states, federal rule of evidence 404 maps out its permissible and prohibited uses. It is often the case that the prosecution will try to put previous convictions before a jury to persuade them of the defendants guilt. Canadian criminal evidencecharactercharacter of accused. Under section 1001 of the criminal justice act 2003, evidence of a non defendants bad character is admissible if. What i mean to make clear, though, is that character evidence per seis not subject to any special treatment under the law. Adducing bad character evidence to show that the defendant has a propensity to commit offences if the prosecution wishes to adduce bad character evidence, on the basis that it is an important matter in issue between the defendant and prosecution, they may argue that it is an important matter in issue because it shows that the defendant has a. Special cases where bad character evidence is inadmissible in chief spent convictions 2. The crown prosecution service page 5of19 power of court to discharge where the evidence of bad character is admitted under section 101 paragraphs c to g and proves to be so contaminated that any resulting conviction would be unsafe, the court. Although the same general presumption against the use of character evidence applies, defendants may offer it and prosecutors may respond in kind in several situations specified in evid.
Therefore, it appears that as bad character would be admissible if the prosecution finds out as previous conviction. The admissibility of bad character evidence coventry university. The view that bad character evidence could be prejudicial to the defend ant was also held by english criminal law this is in contrast to continental europe where the court is routinely informed about the previous convictions of the defendant, where the general rule was that. This provision was introduced as part of the criminal justice act 2003 and was designed to allow evidence of a defendants bad character to play a greater part in the prosecution of. See also richard uviller, evidence of character to prove conduct. Evidence of bad character is admissible if it is relevant to an important matter in issue between the prosecution and the defendant. Such evidence of good or bad character, is confined to evidence of general reputation. The criminal justice act 2003 do the bad character provisions. Illusion, illogic, and injustice in the courtroom, u. The bad character evidence is meant to show the tendency and disposition of the mans mind towards committing or abstaining from committing the class of crime with which he stands charged thus, by adducing evidence of good character the defendant puts his character in issue, notwithstanding whether he takes the witness stand or not. Where the purpose of adducing evidence of similar facts or similar offences was justifiable on the ground of relevancy and necessity to rebut any defence which would otherwise have been open to the accused in addition to those under ss 14 and 15 of the evidence act 1950, evidence of bad character was. This report provides evidence from six court centres over eight months in 2006 on the use of applications to admit bad character evidence in criminal cases. The admissibility of bad character evidence in criminal proceedings is governed by part 11 criminal justice act 2003 sections 98 1, section 99 of which abolished the existing common law rules. This practice note explains the admissibility of a defendants bad character in criminal proceedings when adduced by a codefendant under the provisions of the criminal justice act 2003, s 1011e, gateway e.
If the defendant claimed the victim was the aggressor, i think. Based on this subsection, such evidence would be admissible when accused adducing his own bad character. Or the question may relate to something else, like do any privileges apply. In what circumstances can evidence of a nondefendants. This capsule explores the admissibility of bad character evidence vis a vis the accused in a criminal case. The bad character of nondefendants bloomsbury professional.
But if counsel for the prosecution wishes to crossexamine an accused as to his bad character on the ground that he has given evidence against a coaccused, the. This means that in a trial for a sexual offence, to adduce evidence of a complainants previous sexual. R v elkheir up by b in addition to a, xe on rebuttal evidence after seeking leave under s 112 crown c adduce under specific exceptions d xe on credibility evidence under s 103, or 104 if a d 4a. Character, as the term is used in our jurisprudence, means. The law covering bad character evidence against nondefendants is set out in section 100 of the 2003 act and provides three circumstances in which such evidence may be admitted, which can be compared to the seven gateways in section 1011. Character evidence is a term used in the law of evidence to describe any testimony or document submitted for the purpose of proving that a person acted in a particular way on a particular occasion based on the character or disposition of that person. Bad character evidence the crown prosecution service.
Notice to introduce evidence of a defendants bad character 35. The crown may do this by crossexamining the accused, crossexamining other defence witnesses, or by adducing rebuttal or. The criminal procedure rules 2010 part 35 form author. Bad character evidence edit the crown is prohibited from adducing evidence of extrinsic misconduct of the accused. Character evidence is a general category of evidence that relates to some character trait that is at issue during a criminal trial. Procedures of evidence have evolved over the last three hundred years to forbid the use of particular evidence in court. The evidence of bad character is an interesting area which have often been brought up by academician and judges like professor hoffman to its disputable and uncertainty of status, and so it have been describe as a law which is complex, unprincipled and riddled with anomalies by professor adrian keane. Adducing bad character evidence in crossexamination 2.
Capsule 8 bad character evidence and the accused youtube. What are the seven gateways regarding bad character. Oxford university press online resource centre chapter 17. In criminal law, evidence is used to prove a defendants guilt beyond a reasonable doubt civil law. The admissibility of hearsay and bad character is governed by the criminal justice act 2003 the cja 2003 reformed the law that regulated the admissibility of hearsay and bad character evidence in a criminal trial. Evidence of bad character practice and procedure it is clear that evidence of bad character will play a much greater role in investigations in the future and is likely to form an essential part of the evidence against a defendant as bad character is relevant to credit as well as to the issue of guilt. For evidence to be acceptable it must meet all the criteria in this table. This question is concern with rules relating to the admissibility of defendants bad character and also the fairness of the changes made by cja 2003. Previous convictions are of course bad character evidence but the act widens the concept.