Defendant Not Bound by Informer Priviledge
The duty to protect and enforce informer privilege rests on the police, the Crown, and the courts. The latter must not disclose any information that would tend to reveal an informer’s identity. However, the defence is not bound by any such duty in undertaking its own investigation independently of the courts and the prosecution. The
Read MoreThe Offender’s Ability to Pay a Court Fine
The legislative purpose behind s. 734(2) of the Criminal Code is to prevent offenders from being fined amounts that they are truly unable to pay, and to correspondingly reduce the number of offenders who are incarcerated in default of payment. A court may impose a fine only if satisfied, on a balance of probabilities, that the offender has the
Read MoreItalian Seismologists to Stand Trial on Manslaughter Charges
September 28th, 2011 by Joseph Marcus In what has been described as a “medieval-style attack on science,” Italian prosecutors have charged six seismologists and one public official with manslaughter for their role in an earthquake that devastated the town of L’Aquila. The 6.3-magnitude earthquake took the town by surprise on April 9, 2009, resulting in over
Read MoreGet it in Writing…
The crucial importance of the distinction between prosecutorial discretion reviewable only for abuse of process and matters of tactics or conduct before the court governed by the inherent jurisdiction of the criminal trial court to control its own process was fully canvassed and explained inKrieger v. Law Society of Alberta, 2002 SCC 65 (CanLII), 2002 SCC
Read MoreThe truth about Canadian crime rates
BY JOHN MACFARLANE CRIME RATES have been declining in Canada for decades, as a result of demographics rather than policy initiatives. Here, as in other countries, most crimes are committed by young men, and because we have been producing fewer children of either gender there are not as many young men to commit them. According to Statistics
Read MoreThe Prosecution Rests, but I Can’t
By JOHN THOMPSON New Orleans I SPENT 18 years in prison for robbery and murder, 14 of them on death row. I’ve been free since 2003, exonerated after evidence covered up by prosecutors surfaced just weeks before my execution date. Those prosecutors were never punished. Last month, the Supreme Court decided 5-4 to overturn a case
Read MoreLet’s build opportunity, not prisons
Globe and Mail Published Friday, Feb. 18, 2011 7:30PM EST With Canada poised to spend untold billions of dollars expanding its prison system, it’s worth looking at what else that money might buy in national projects that invest in the country’s most important capital, its people. Assuming Canada had extra billions in a time of large deficits,
Read MoreJury no-shows ordered to court to explain absences
Bob Mitchell Staff Reporter The look on their faces only told part of the story. Scared, and nervous, 28 people slowly walked from the back of Brampton’s largest courtroom on Thursday to explain to a Superior Court judge why they ignored their jury duty summonses. For many, it was like walking up the steps to
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Ontario court interpreters failing tests
The use of interpreters in Ontario courtrooms could become a serious issue after about 40 per cent in the first group failed the new proficiency tests. Ontario is testing all of its accredited interpreters. The first group to take the tests didn’t fare well as only 46 passed, 69 were given conditional credentials and 77
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Man cleared by DNA after 30 years in prison
DALLAS – A Texas man declared innocent Tuesday after 30 years in prison could have cut short his prison stint twice and made parole — if only he would admit he was a sex offender. But Cornelius Dupree Jr. refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery, in the process
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