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LPC Law Notes Criminal Litigation Notes

Evidence Notes

Updated Evidence Notes

Criminal Litigation Notes

Criminal Litigation

Approximately 143 pages

A collection of the best LPC Criminal Litigation notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through dozens of LPC samples from outstanding students with the highest results in England and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor".

In short these are what we believe to be the strongest set of Criminal Lit notes available in the UK this year. This collection of notes is fully up...

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Criminal Litigation Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

Evidence

Competence & Compellability of Witnesses

Witness?
For Whom?
Competence?
Compellability?
Ordinary Witness
Prosecution
Yes (s.53(1) YJCEA)
Yes
Defence
Yes (s.53(1) YJCEA)
Yes
Defendant
Prosecution
No (s.53(4) YJCEA)
No
Defence
Yes (s.1 CEA)
No, but adverse inferences may be made (s.35 CJPOA)
Co-Defendant
Prosecution
No (s.53(4) YJCEA)
No
Co-Defendant
Yes (s.1 CEA)
No (s.1(1) CEA)
Themselves
Yes (s.1 CEA)
No, but adverse inferences may be made (s.35 CJPOA)
Spouse of Defendant
Prosecution
Yes (s.53(1) YJCEA)
Yes (s.80(2A)(b) PACE) – only if s.80(3) PACE applies
Defence (married to D)
Yes (s.53(1) YJCEA)
Yes (s.80(2) PACE) unless jointly charged with D (s.80(4) PACE)
Co-Defendant
Yes (s.53(1) YJCEA)
Yes (s.80(2A)(b) PACE) – only if s.80(3) PACE applies

Bad Character Evidence

Identification Evidence

Stage 1
apply ADVOKATE
A
Amount of time under observation?
D
Distance from the suspect and witness?
V
Visibility?
O
Obstructions in the way?
K
Known or seen before?
A
Any reason to remember the suspect?
T
Time between observation of suspect and identification?
E
Error or material discrepancy in subsequent/previous accounts?
Stage 2
Is the evidence weak or strong? Why? Is there any other evidence?
Stage 3
Apply R v Turnbill: Is the evidence wholly or substantially the only evidence and is it disputed?
Apply flowchart

Confession Evidence & Admissibility

A) EVIDENCE
Evidence is only admissible if it goes towards a matter in issue (DPP v Killbourne). Ignore irrelevant or opinion evidence.
B) CONFESSION EVIDENCE
Definition of evidence: “any statement which is wholly or partly adverse to the person who made it” (s.82(1) PACE).
Confessions are inadmissible admissible if they are relevant (s.76(1) PACE).
There are two grounds to exclude confessions, if either of these grounds are proved then the evidence must be excluded (no discretion):
Inducement
Lies
Breaches of PACE
Unlawful Arrest under s.28 PACE – must have a CIG (Caution, Inform, Grounds)
C) PROSECUTION EVIDENCE
s.78 can apply to exclude the prosecutions evidence if it has an adverse effect on fairness. This can include significant breaches of PACE or COP (R v Walsh).
Explain differences between s.76 and s.78 – mandatory vs discretionary, no burden for s.78.
D) PROCEDURE
Voir Dire in Crown Court or in front of Magistrates in Magistrates’ Court.

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