New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Admissibility of prison informant evidence

  • 10 May 2021

    WAA v R [2021] NZCA 172

    Citation
    [2021] NZCA 172
    Court
    Court of Appeal

    The Court dismissed the leave application because none of the proposed grounds were reasonably arguable under the statutory appeal criteria: the trial judge correctly applied the law on severance and gave adequate directions; issues about Witness A's incentives, corroboration and credibility were matters the jury could assess and did not render the verdict unsafe; references to other alleged crimes were tactical and not shown to be prejudicial; and the applicant's prolonged and inordinate delay (with resulting witness unavailability) compounded prejudice, removing any basis to grant a reheari…

    • Severance (joinder of trials)
    • Admissibility of prison informant evidence
    • Jury directions
    • Delay and finality
    • Post-conviction review

  • 14 Sept 2020

    DAVID NOEL ROIGARD v R [2020] NZSC 94

    Citation
    [2020] 1 NZLR 338
    Court
    Supreme Court

    Prison informant evidence is not presumptively inadmissible but must be subject to careful judicial scrutiny under s 8 Evidence Act 2006 balancing probative value against the risk of unfair prejudice, including consideration of incentives, witness history and corroboration; evidence is excluded under s 30 only where it is improperly or unfairly obtained, which does not extend to routine criminal-justice incentives absent further illegality; applying these principles, the evidence of inmate F was admissible, the evidence of inmate W was unreliable and should have been excluded under s 8 on the…

    • Admissibility of prison informant evidence
    • Exclusion of evidence under s 8 evidence act 2006
    • Improperly obtained evidence s 30 evidence act 2006
    • Incentivised witnesses and sentence discounts
    • Corroboration of confession evidence
    • Jury directions