Turnbull

Question 1

What are the Turnbull Guidelines?

Answer 1

Guidelines on:

• what a judge should say to a jury when a case depended wholly or substantially on disputed identification evidence
• when identification evidence can safely be left to the jury and when a case must be withdrawn to protect the defendant from an unsafe conviction

Question 2

What should happen if the case depends wholly or substantially on the correctness of an identification of the accused which the defence allege is mistaken?

Answer 2

Judge should warn the jury of the special need for caution before convicting the accused in reliance on the correctness of the id. Whenever the prosecution case depends wholly or substantially:
- on correctness of one or more ids of the accused
- defence alleges the identification to be mistaken

Question 3

Three elements of a turnbull warning:

Answer 3

• Instruct the jury as to the reason for the need for such a warning; mistaken witnesses can be convincing ones
• Direct the jury to examine the circumstances in which the identification by each witness came to be made
• Remind the jury of any specific weaknesses in the identification evidence

Question 4

Evidence capable of supporting ID evidence

Answer 4

• scientific evidence
• multiple identifications by different witnesses
• accused’s bad character or previous convictions
• accused’s silence on interview
• accused’s admissions at the scene/in interview/in witness box

Question 5

Factors which affect the quality of visual ID evidence?

Answer 5

A: amount of time under observation
- how long did the the witness have the accused in view?

D: distance
- distance between the witness and the accused?

V: visibility

O: obstruction

K: Known or seen by defendant
- had the witness seen the defendant before? did they known them?

A: any reason to remember
- bright shirt?

T: time lapse
- had there been a long time between the witness seeing the accused and the ID procedure?

E: error or material discrepancy
- any material discrepancies between the description and the actual appearance?

Question 6

Quality of evidence

Answer 6

Good quality: can be left to the jury to assess the value of the ID evidence
- make sure adequate warning about need for caution

Poor:
- other supporting evidence: leave to jury
- no other evidenceL withdraw case and direct an acquittal.

Question 6

Weight of multiple IDs

Answer 6

Two IDs carry more weight than one.

But each separate ID must be of a quality that can safely be left to the jury to assess.