Jury trials present challenges for lawyers and judges alike. Lawyers have to consider the case from a different perspective than a judge alone trial, whereas judges will have to make sure that they respond to any issues which arise in a way that ensures a fair trial.

A number of the witnesses at Mr. Assoun’s trial had troubled pasts. Specifically his nephew had a lengthy criminal record. There was also a classic feature of wrongful conviction cases, a jailhouse informant who had received a discounted sentence for drug offences in exchange for his testimony.

I have recently been listening to the CBC podcast Uncovered and am using Season 7 as an inspiration for the next few blog posts. This most recent season looks at the wrongful conviction of Glen Assoun. Mr. Assoun was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and spent 17 years in jail.

The Crown has an obligation to disclose all relevant information in its possession. Disclosure is an essential component of the right to full answer and defence and as a result has been recognized as a principle of fundamental justice under s. 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.In the majority of cases complete disclosure is provided without issue. There will however, be cases where problems arise. In this blog post we will review what happens when evidence is lost or destroyed.

Liberty is at the heart of a free and democratic society. In R. v. Le the Supreme Court of Canada excluded a firearm and drugs from evidence as a result of a breach of Mr. Le’s s. 9 Charter right to be free from arbitrary detention. This right is meant to protect individual liberty against unjustified state interference. A detention exists in situations where a reasonable person in the accused’s shoes would feel obligated to comply with a police direction or demand and that they are not free to leave. The case tackled a number of issues. The focus here will be on policing racial minorities.

Police officers must have reasonable grounds to believe that someone has committed or is about to commit an indictable offence before arresting them. The Supreme Court of Canada has rightly made clear that, "[w]ithout such an important protection, even the most democratic society could all too easily fall prey to the abuses and excesses of a police state".

Courts face a difficult task in finding facts at trial. Judges must determine who’s evidence they believe. Judges are able to accept some, none or all of a witnesses’ evidence. The question of which evidence to accept can only be answered by a proper analysis of the evidence of all of the witnesses -- considering the internal consistency of each witness' evidence, its consistency with other evidence found to be reliable and its consistency with common sense and ordinary human experience.