In October of this year, after a number of news stories on shootings had been rolled around in the public discourse, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell decided that he’d better look busy.<\/p>\n
So he made a speech<\/a>. The gist of the speech was to suggest that maybe the state wasn’t preventing crime because it had, for mysterious reasons, decided to do everything it could to help hardened dangerous criminals to get away with murder.<\/p>\n Why the state should do this was left as a mystery for us to shake our heads over.<\/p>\n To solve this terrible problem he called together a group of worthies- The Balance in the Criminal Law Review Group.<\/a><\/p>\n Their Terms of Reference were:<\/p>\n To examine the issues referred to in the speech made by the Tanaiste and Minister for \u2022 the right to silence and any other proposals regarding criminal law, criminal evidence and criminal We already have a Law Reform Commission<\/a> of course, but let’s leave that aside for the moment.<\/p>\n
\nJustice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Michael McDowell, T.D., in Limerick on 20
\nOctober 2006 affecting<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 allowing character evidence of an accused
\n\u2022 the exclusionary rule of evidence
\n\u2022 requiring the accused to outline the nature of his defence before or at
\nthe commencement of a trial
\n\u2022 re-opening new evidence
\n\u2022 nullifying an acquittal where there is evidence of jury or witness
\ntampering
\n\u2022 \u201cwith prejudice??? appeals in the case of wrongful acquittal
\n\u2022 extending alibi evidence rules to other analogous situations
\n\u2022 allowing submissions by the prosecution before sentencing
\n\u2022 modifying the rule in relation to hearsay evidence<\/p>\n
\nprocedure that may come to the attention of the Review Group in the course of their
\nexamination of those issues and report to the Tanaiste and Minister for Justice,
\nEquality and Law Reform by 1 March 2007.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n