MAGISTRATE’S ERROR.
SUGGESTED THAT MAN’S EVIDENCE MIGHT BE UNTRUE
Remarks made by a magistrate were criticised by Mr Justice Swift at the Court of Criminal Appeal. John Quinn was granted leave to appeal against the sentence of 15 months' hard labour he received at London Sessions on a charge of shopbreaking. Mr Justice Swift, giving judgment, related that when Quinn went into the witness box to give evidence, the deputy-chairman a.t the Sessions said to him; “I want you to be very careful, because if you give evidence on oath which the jury believe is untrue, and you are convicted, your sentence will not be as short as it would have been had you not given that evidence.”
“We th,ink,” went on Mr Justice Swift, “that that was a very unfortunate way of introducing the evidence. A Court which is trying a criminal has no right, before the accused person gives his evidence, to suggest that what he is going to say is untrue.”
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19320810.2.38
Bibliographic details
Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10884, 10 August 1932, Page 4
Word Count
164MAGISTRATE’S ERROR. Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10884, 10 August 1932, Page 4
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Bay of Plenty Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence . This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in