CRIM 330 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Duty Counsel, Fundamental Justice, Perjury
20 Apr 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Statements made by an accused (admissions and confessions, introduction. Statements made by an accused can be a very important form of evidence. However, as with all evidence, courts are always concerned with its probative value. So underlying any consideration or treatment of statements made by an accused is a concern that such statements only be used in evidence where we are relatively confident of their truthfulness. Ex: a confession obtained as a result of torture would have low probative value whereas a confession made in a completely voluntary manner, after a full consultation with counsel, would probably have fairly high probative value. Statements made by an accused can be classified in 2 ways; admissions and confessions. Furthermore, their usefulness as evidence is affected by some key charter sections: admissions (a) formal admissions. Ex of formal admissions: guilty plea (admission of all facts alleged); admitting voluntariness of confession (significance of voluntariness will be dealt with below)
