previous conviction declared

[tali122]

what(if any) previous convictions of the defendant can the prosecution disclose in a court case?-also if they cant be disclosed at all what about if the defendant is well known due to a previous conviction that had a lot of publicity?

[NORMANTHEDOG]

if the defendant is on trial,his previous convictions are kept from the jury and court,until after the verdict is annouced.if you or anyone informs anybody during the trial,he can have the case stopped and a retrial could follow,so be carefull,you could be held in contempt.

[Buenchico]

As Norman says, the judicial system seeks to prevent jurors from being told about a defendant's previous convictions. In some cases this obviously isn't possible. e.g. if Jeffrey Archer was to come before a court again, it's very unlikely that a jury could be found which was unaware of his previous brush with the law. In such cases, the judge must do everything possible to ensure that the jury don't allow their knowledge of the defendant's criminal past to affect their judgement.

There are a few exceptions which are permitted. Firstly, the defence team might wish the jury to know about a particular conviction. (e.g. Mr Bloggs could not have committed this murder because he's already been convicted for a burglary, 500 miles away, on the same date).

Secondly, the prosecution can seek approval from the judge to introduce evidence of past convictions if it becomes evident that the defendant is committing perjury. (e.g. if the defendant specifically says "I've worked in banking all my life and nobody has ever questioned my honesty before", the prosecution can seek permission to disclose the fact that the defendant has a dozen convictions for fraud.

Lastly, with sexual offences, the prosecution can make an application to disclose the defendant's previous convictions as evidence of 'propensity'. (e.g. if a defendant says that the child porn images on his PC must have been downloaded by someone else, the prosecution can seek to tell the jury that the defendant has previously been convicted of similar offences).

Chris

[undercovers]

the legislation concerning the release of previous conviction info to the jury during the trial can be found in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, ss 98-113.

Section 101 of the 2003 Act states, inter alia:

(1) In criminal proceedings evidence of the defendant's bad character is admissible if, but only if-...(d) it is relevant to an important matter in issue between the defendant and the prosecution ...

Section 101(1)(d) of the 2003 Act is supplemented by s. 103, which states:

(1) For the purposes of section 101(1)(d) the matters in issue between the defendant and the prosecution include-(a) the question whether the defendant has a propensity to commit offences of the kind with which he is charged, except where his having such a propensity makes it no more likely that he is guilty of the offence;(b) the question whether the defendant has a propensity to be untruthful, except where it is not suggested that the defendant's case is untruthful in any respect.

(2) Where subsection (1)(a) applies, a defendant's propensity to commit offences of the kind with which he is charged may (without prejudice to any other way of doing so) be established by evidence that he has been convicted of-(a) an offence of the same description as the one with which he is charged, or(b) an offence of the same category as the one with which he is charged.

(3) Subsection (2) does not apply in the case of a particular defendant if the court is satisfied, by reason of the length of time since the conviction or for any other reason, that it would be unjust for it to apply in his case.


this was quite a shake up of the law, and if you are interested maybe a full read of the statute is in order as this is just a cut and paste straight out of it... hope this helps.
all the best undercovers

[JudgeJ]

|These amendments to the law were introduced under the heading "evidence of bad character". There are, in fact, seven "gateways" which allow such evidence to be put before a jury (or magistrates if it is a magistrates' court trial) which are too lengthy to go into here, but undercovers points readers to the relevant legislation. It is also intersting to note that, under the same legislation, evidence of bad character can also be introduced to discredit witnesses.

Conversely, the jury (or magistrates) can hear that the defendant is of previous good character and - not surprisingly - most defence advocates insist on this evidence being produced.

[Pete1956]

To read the Criminal Justice Act 2003:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2003/20030044. htm