Jury System: Eyewitness And Confession Evidence

This essay will critically explain a range of evidence gathering techniques, including eye witness and confession evidence. It will examine the workings and procedures of jury systems, the rules of evidence and concerns and issues with the use of a jury. It will also provide opinions and research of others into criminal evidence and juries.

Eyewitness evidence is the testimony of a person giving an account of an event they have witnessed, for example the identification of perpetrators and details of the crime scene. An eyewitness can be a victim, a bystander, or a participant in the crime, the most common type of eyewitness identification is pretrial identification (Arkowitz, 2009). There are three types of pretrial identification they are
Section 82(1) of PACE defines a confession as ‘including any statement wholly or partly adverse to the person who made it, made in words or otherwise and whether made to a person in authority or not’. Section 76(2) of PACE directs the court to exclude confession evidence obtained in circumstances which were likely to make the confession unreliable, the prosecution must establish beyond any reasonable doubt that the confession was not obtained as a result of oppression, or in circumstances which were likely to have made it unreliable, this includes torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, the use or threat of violence, hostile and aggressive questioning, failure to record accurately what was said, failure to caution, failure to provide an appropriate adult where one is required, failure to allow sufficient rest prior to an interview, failure of the defence solicitor or appropriate adult to act properly, breaches of the European convention on human rights, breaches of the codes of practice issued under PACE and bad faith on behalf of the police. Section 77 of PACE provides additional safeguards for people who suffer from a mental disorder, the disorder must be of a type which might render a suspect's confession unreliable, the court should consider medical evidence as to the actual mental condition of the suspect and not solely based on a history given by the suspect (CPS,
Forensic evidence is scientific evidence provided by expert witnesses, obtained by scientific methods such as ballistics, blood testing, and DNA testing. There are two major types of forensic evidence, there is fragile or ‘transient’ evidence such as, hairs, fibers, glass, fractured objects, fire accelerants, skin cells; found on items touched or worn, barefoot impressions; latent and in blood, shoe and tire impressions, toolmarks; focus on point of entry, body fluids; blood, semen, and saliva, gunshot residue or patterns, and latent fingerprints, and there is solid or ‘tangible’ evidence such as, firearms, unfired cartridges, fired cartridge cases, fired bullets, other weapons; knives, metal bars, bats etc.., computers and devices, documents; checks, notes and receipts, drugs, and paraphernalia (MSP,