PUBLICATION OF EVIDENCE

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 April 1928, Page 2

PUBLICATION OF EVIDENCE

PROHIBITION SUGGESTED.

(Per Press Association h

CHRISTCHURCH, April 12. The legal conference to-day discussed a motion by Mr M. J. Gresson: “That it is desirable that the law should be amended (1) To forbid the publication of evidence in the Lower Court in all capital cases; (2) To restrict the publication of evidence in divorce cases to the names of the parties, the grounds of the petition, and the result." In support of the first part of the motion, Mr Gresson submitted that the publication of the evidence in capital cases before the Supreme Court stage was reached, though intended for the protection of an accused, operated to his disadvantage, as it was impossible to expect jurymen not to have been influenced by the case for the prosecution when there was no cross-examination of witnesses. As to the second portion of the resolution, he considered there was no moral purpose served, in giving details of divorce proceedings. The first portion of Mr Gresson’s motion was withdrawn, and the following motion, by Mr Myers, was carried: “That the practice that has grown up in recent years only of Crown and police prosecutions in certain places making an opening address in the Lower Court in indictable cases, is, in the opinion of the conference, wrong and not in the interests of justice, and that the AttorneyGeneral be requested to direct the cessation of the practice.”