NCJ Number
182809
Journal
Judicial Review Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Dated: 1999 Pages: 217-268
Date Published
1999
Length
52 pages
Annotation
This paper supplements and updates a 1997 paper by Justice David Hunt regarding various problems that have plagued criminal trials conducted in both the Supreme Court and district courts of New South Wales (Australia); the focus is on the proceedings of the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal between 1997 and 1999.
Abstract
This study first documents the outcomes of judge-alone trials, followed by a review of the court's management of prejudicial publicity. A review of cases that involved child sexual assault address relationship/tendency evidence, the impact of relevant court precedents regarding evidence, the use of complaint evidence, and the application of provisions of the Complaint and the Crimes Act and the Crimes Act 1900. Following consideration of the processing of cases of child sexual assault, the paper considers the court's handling of evidence in general, as it discusses out-of-court representations, objections to evidence, circumstantial evidence, admissions, lies, and the subpoenaing by the accused of communications by victims of sexual assault. Another section of the paper focuses on "summing up" in trials before the court. Topics covered include short-form summing up, balanced summing up, warnings under the Evidence Act, conflict between evidence for the Crown and the accused's testimony, the choice of the accused not to give evidence, and judicial intervention. The concluding section focuses on the court's consideration of sentencing, with attention to guideline sentences, offender's assistance to law enforcement, special circumstances, sentencing statistics, evidence on sentence, mitigating or aggravating factors, and the totality principle. 1 table and 176 footnotes