Defenses in the Canadian Court System

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Defenses in the Canadian Court System
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Defenses

• A number of defenses exist to either prove that
  the accused is not guilty of their crime or is
  guilty of a lesser crime.
• These Defenses include
• Alibi
• Self-defense
• Legal Duty
• Excusable Conduct
• Mental Disorder
• Not Criminally Responsible
• Consent
• Entrapment
• Mistake of Fact
• Double Jeopardy

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Alibi

• Having an alibi is the best defense possible.
• An alibi is a witness who sees you in a place in
  which you could not have possibly committed the
  crime.

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Self-defense

• The accused can be found not liable for their
  crime if their action was in defense of their
  person or property.
• The force used by the accused must be warranted
  by the danger. As any police officer during
  arrest, citizens are liable for unnecessary use
  of force.

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Legal Duty

• A person under legal duty can commit certain
  actions that would otherwise be illegal if those
  actions were committed while on duty.

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Excusable Conduct

• The defense of excusable conduct can be employed
  in three different ways
• Provocation
• Necessity and Duress
• Honest mistake

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Provocation

• In some cases, it is possible to have murder
  charges lowered to manslaughter charges if the
  act of murder was provoked by the victim.
• Provocation includes any blows, words, or
  gestures by the victim.
• It is illegal to slap someone with a glove and
  challenge them to a duel

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Necessity and Duress

• In some cases the person cannot be held liable of
  their crime because of duress, or stress placed
  on them from other people

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Honest Mistake

• Often people use the excusable conduct defense of
  honest mistake. Their crime was a mental error,
  and was not intended.
• Honest Mistake is the most common defense for
  those caught leaving a store with merchandise
  that has not been paid for.

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Mental Disorder

• The mental disorder defense can also be separated
  into two categories
• mental fitness to stand trial
• mental fitness at the time of the offence
• If the accused is found to be mentally unsound by
  a psychiatrist, then that individual may be able
  to avoid full criminal punishment. Any such
  individual is legally committed into psychiatric
  treatment.

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Not Criminally Responsible

• If someone is intoxicated beyond their ability to
  make rational decisions, they could possibly be
  acquitted on the fact that they were not in
  control of their actions.
• If someone is in a state of automatism through
  any other means sleepwalking, psychological
  stress, or behaviour when concussed, then they
  can also be found not criminally responsible for
  their actions.

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Consent

• Consent is a valid defense when the victim of the
  crime consented to an action that resulted in the
  crime.
• This defense is used often by athletes charged
  with assault in violent sports.
• The defense of consent cannot be used in the case
  of murder or in cases for offences committed
  against a person under 14 years of age.

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Entrapment

• Entrapment is when the police unlawfully
  encourage or aid a criminal in committing an
  offence in order to charge them and jail them for
  that crime.

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Mistake of Fact

• Mistake of fact is when someone commits a crime
  without knowing it, because they are mistaken or
  mislead to understand the situation. Ignorance
  of the law is not a defense while ignorance of
  the facts is.

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Double Jeopardy

• Section 11 in the charter says that nobody can be
  tried twice, or punished twice for the same
  crime. If tried before for the crime then the
  accused could use the Double Jeopardy defense.