SHOULD A TRIAL JUDGE'S UNCERTAINTY AS TO THE ADMISSIBILITY OF EVIDENCE CONSTITUTE A GROUND FOR DISCHARGING THE JURY?

Abstract

This analysis focuses on the issues raised by one case in particular, and aims to reduce the risk that they will remain undecided in subsequent cases. The first issue centres on admissibility of evidence. The second involves the trial judge’s procedural technique in discharging the jury and reserving the question of admissibility, and the third issue assumes that the trial judge erred in employing his procedural technique, in order to ask whether the accused’s failure to object precluded the Appellate Court from ordering a new trial. The author scrutinizes the analysis of these issues in the courts in order to raise awareness of their implications and argue for a different approach.