The Safety-Valve: discretion to admit hearsay evidence in criminal proceedings

Stockdale, Michael and Piasecki, Emma (2012) The Safety-Valve: discretion to admit hearsay evidence in criminal proceedings. The Journal of Criminal Law, 76 (4). pp. 314-332. ISSN 0022-0183

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Section 114(1)(d) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 gave the criminal courts discretion to admit hearsay evidence in the interests of justice. The Law Commission envisaged that the courts would only exercise this inclusionary discretion in exceptional circumstances. Whilst the admissibility threshold created by s. 114(1)(d) is not as high as the Law Commission had intended, the recent jurisprudence suggests that the courts will exercise the s. 114(1)(d) discretion much as the Law Commission had anticipated except that, contrary to the Law Commission’s intentions, there is authority for the proposition that where a confession is admitted under s. 114(1)(d) it may be admissible against persons other than its maker and there is also authority for the proposition that the hearsay evidence of a witness who cannot be identified is not admissible under s. 114(1)(d).

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	M100 Law by area
Department:	Faculties > Business and Law > Northumbria Law School
Depositing User:	Helen Pattison
Date Deposited:	01 May 2012 12:05
Last Modified:	13 Oct 2019 00:38
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/6596

Downloads