Chapter 6: Trial procedures Flashcards
What is adversarial system?
- System of law in which two or more opposing sides present their case on court.
What is adversarial system?
- System of law in which two or more opposing sides present their case on court.
What are the two opposing sides?
- The crown
- The defense
In which case the trial procedure doesn’t have jury and the decision is made by the judge alone?
- If the accused commited a summary conviction or minor indictable.
Who has the full control of if the court room?
- Judges
What is one of the most important role judges have?
- What evidence is Admissable
What is the role of a judge in a simple trial?
- Is evidence is believeable
- If the accused is innocent or guilty
- Set a sentence
What is a crown attroney?
- Lawyer who prosecutes on behalf of the gorvernment.
What is the principle of disclosure?
- The acussed has the right to the disclosure of all rleevant information in the possesion of the crown.
What is the principle of disclosure?
- The acussed has the right to the disclosure of all rleevant information in the possesion of the crown.
What is the defense counsel?
- the legal representative of the accused
What is the court clerk?
- Person who keeps records and files, and proccesses documents for court.
What is a court recorder?
- A person who documents court proceedings.
What is the sheriff?
- Crown-appointed official who acts as part of the justice administration system.
What is the motion of state of proceedings?
- Stops the trial from proceeding at all
How many jurors are in a trial?
- 12 jurors
What is empanelling?
- To process to sleect juries
What is the process of empanelling?
- List created by vote
- Selection comitte directed by the sehrif randomly picks 75 out fo the 100 names
- The jury panel is called to appear in court.
- Juries are selected according to their bias
What are the qualifications to be a jury?
- Must be a candian citizen
- Must be at leat 18 years old.
- They must have reside in the province for at least a year.
- They must speak either English or French
- They must be mentally fit to take on th erepsonsability.
Who gets exempted form jury duty?
- Publicly elected politicians
- Judges, law students, lawyers.
- Doctors and veterinarians
- Law enforcement offciers.
- People who are visualy impaired
- People with mental or physical disability
- Anyone who has served as a jury in the lat 3 years
- Anyone convisted form an indictable offense that hasn’t bee pardoned.
What are the three types of challenge?
- Challenge of jury list
- Challenge for cause
- Peremptory challenge
What is challenge of jury list?
- if sheriff or selection comitee was baised
- Misconduct from the prospective jurors.
What is challenge for cause?
- formal obejection to a prosprective juror for specific reasons.
What is a peremptory challenge?
- Allows the defence or crown to eliminate a prospictive juror withoout giving a specific reason.
What jurors must not do?
- Dicuss the case with others than jurors.
- Folow media reports about the case.
- Disclose any information from the jury discussion.
What is a sequester?
- To keep the jury togther and isolated until a verdict
What is arraignment?
- When the charge is read by the court clerk to the accused.
- The accused the pleads guilty or not guilty.
What are exhibits?
- Physical evidence
What is direct evidence?
- Evidence obtained from someone that saw the crime being comitted.
(not always reliable)
What is circumstancial evidence?
- inirect evidence, that shows that the accused is the most likely the one who comitted the crime.
What is an examination in chief?
- When the lawyers asks the first questions to their own witness
What is the cross-examination?
- When a lawyer asks questions to a witness they did not bring.
What are leading questions?
- Leads the witness to a particular answer, generally yes or no.
What is a directed verdict?
- When Judge withdraws the case form the duty and finds the accused not guilty because the crown has not proven its case.
What is a subpoena?
- A court document ordering a person to appear on court.
What is perjury?
- To knowingly give false evidence during a trial.
What is credibility?
- The fact or quality of being believable or reliable.
What is voir dire?
- It is a trial within a trial to decide if evidence can be shown to the jury.
What is self incrimination?
- The act of implicating oneself in a crime.
(A witness can object to question on the grounds of self incrimination)
What are priviliged communications?
- Confidential communication that can’t be disclosed.
What is similar fact evidence?
- Evidence that shows the accused has comitted similar offences in the past.
What is hearsay evidence?
• any written or spoken statement;
• that was made outside the trial; and
• that is being used to prove the truth of the statement.
What is opinion evidence?
- What an expert witness thinks about certain facts in a case.
What is character evidence?
- Information that indicates the likehood of any negative character traits form the accused.
- If the defense introduces evidence of good character, the crown is allowed to use evidence of bad character.
What are the circumstances where police can intercept private conversations?
- The situation is an emergency
- To prevent an unlawful to act that would cause serious harm
- One party under surveillance is either performing the act or is a victim.
What is polygraph evidence?
- Lie detection test.
What is a confession?
- A statement in which the accussed admits that some or all of the charges are true.
What is inculpatory evidence?
- Demonstration of guilt
What is exculpatory evidence?
- Clearing the defendant of guilt
What is the summation?
- Summary of all key arguments
What is the charge of the jury?
- The judge’s instruction and advise to the jury at the end of a trial
What is the jury’s role?
- To determine the facts of a case
What is the judge’s role?
- To determine the law
What is a hung jury?
- A jury that cannot come to an unanimous decision in a criminal case.
