Most offences in Indian criminal law were created by Statute and have a statutory maximum penalty. For the purposes of trial, offences were divided into different categories, offences triable by indictment (warrant cases) or offences triable only summarily, or offences triable either way. The most serious offences (eg: murder, rape) are triable only on indictment, at the Sessions Court. A large mass of less serious offences are triable only summarily, in magistrates' courts. The middle catego...
Section 106 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (hereinafter referred to as Evidence Act) deals with sifting the burden of proving a certain fact on the accused when that fact is particularly within his knowledge. This section is applicable only when the prosecution has proved the prima facie case against the accused. Hence, it is clear that the section is just an exception to section 101 of the Evidence Act and it does not remove the legal burden from the shoulder of the prosecution. Thus the b...
Since Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923), eighty seven years ago, courts have been challenged in dealing with standards of evidence as they relate to the admissibility of expert testimony. In Frye, an expert witness gave evidence that Frye was innocent of the crime to which he was charged based on the results of his blood pressure testing (a pre-cursor to present day polygraph tests). [1] The court rejected the evidence of the expert witness. In denying Frye's appeal, it was ...
With a view to furthering this study on police investigations and victim support in relation to rape crimes perpetrated against women via a comparative study between the activities of the United Kingdom (UK) police force and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this paper will provide a discussion of the police procedure involved with dealing with the investigation of rape cases in England and Wales. On this basis, it is necessary to consider the strong and weak points of this procedure with a vie...
The Facts Ostensibly, the relevant facts are that - (a) The defendant was charged with rape and (b) sought leave from the trial judge to adduce evidence (section 41 of the Youth Justice & Criminal Evidence Act (YJCEA) 1999) the complainant had previously had a sexual relationship with him and had sex with a third party a day before the rape. Section 41 of the YJCEA 1999 It is only possible for a defendant to ask questions about a complainant's sexual behaviour in a given case if the particula...
Missouri is one of the few states that does not have a statute of limitation for rape, forcible rape and/or forcible sodomy. The Missouri statute of limitations for child sexual abuse is 3 years or before the age of 30. A person commits the crime of statutory rape in the first degree if he has sexual intercourse with another person who is less than fourteen years old. A person commits the crime of forcible rape if such person has sexual intercourse with another person by the use of forcible c...
The criminal justice system needs reform to avoid wrongful convictions and unprepared re-entry to society. Each year, thousands of people are convicted of crimes they do not commit. A few main causes of wrongful convictions are eyewitness misidentifications, government misconduct, and bad lawyering. In many cases, those exonerated of the crimes they did not commit no longer have the proper resources to re-enter society successfully. In one case example involving eyewitness misidentification, ...
My Lords, on 15 April 1989 there was a horrifying disaster at the Hillsborough Football Stadium in Sheffield. The pressure of crowds trying to get into the ground crushed 95 people on the terraces to death and injured many more. On that day the plaintiffs (respondents to this appeal) were serving members of the South Yorkshire Police Force on duty at the stadium or elsewhere in Sheffield. Each became in some way involved in the dreadful aftermath. Two helped to carry the dead and dying. Two t...
Richard Kuklinski Iceman INTRODUCTION At 7:00 he his awoke by the sound of his alarm clock. It was time to get his children ready for school. Richard Kuklinski walks down the staircase and sees his lovely family around the kitchen table. He kisses his wife Barbara on the check and continues to say good morning to his three children Merrick, Christin, and Dwayne. After getting ready, he drops his children off at their prestigious private schools and is off to work. To an outsider, it may seem ...
Conditional fee arrangements are widely used throughout various legal systems; they have been used in the UK since 1990 and were expanded to include non-family civil proceedings since 1998. Conditional fee arrangements are also referred to as "No fee, no win" arrangements where parties bringing an action may make arrangements with a solicitor where the solicitor agrees to accept payment only on the strict condition that the action being brought on behalf of their client yields a successful re...
