New Legislation
| Published date | 01 May 1980 |
| Date | 01 May 1980 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002201838004400201 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
New
Legislation
THE CRIMINAL EVIDENCE ACT 1979
The Criminal Evidence Act 1979 has made a minor
but
nevertheless
material alteration to the law
of
criminal evidence and procedure.
It
may therefore be helpful to review the legal position as to what is
commonly called 'putting one's character in issue', with particular
reference to giving evidence against a co-accused.
The CriminalEvidence
Act
1898
Evidence
of
an accused's bad character or previous convictions and
cross examination to elicit this information is
not
permitted prior to
conviction unless its admissibility comes within one
of
the recognized
exceptions. These exeptions are set
out
in S.I (f)
of
the Criminal
Evidence Act 1898.
S.l(f)
of
that
Act
reads:-
"A person charged and called as a witness in pursuance
of
this Act
shall not be asked, and if asked shall
not
be required to answer, any
question tending to show
that
he has committed or been convicted
of
or been charged with any offence other than
that
wherewith he is
then charged or is
of
bad character unless -
(i) the
proof
that he has committed or been convicted
of
such other
offence is admissible evidence to show that he is guilty
of
the
offence wherewith he is then charged; or
(ii) he has personally or by his advocate asked questions
of
the
witnesses for the prosecution with a view to establish his own good
character, or has given evidence
of
his good character or the nature
or conduct
of
the defence is such as to involve imputations on the
character
of
the prosecutor or the witnesses for the prosecution or
(iii) he has given evidence against any
other
person charged with the
same offence
In the last
of
these exceptions the words 'in the same proceedings'
was substituted for the words 'with the same offence' by the Criminal
Evidence Act 1979 thus reversing the effect
of
the decision
of
the
House
of
Lords in R. v. Hills [1978] 2 All ER 1105.
59
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