Confession by Design: Mr. Big Operations and the Exploitation of Vulnerability
Confessions carry significant weight in this system. They are intuitively persuasive and often treated by triers of fact as powerful admissions of guilt, even where contextual or coercive factors may be present. Given the natural inclination toward guilty verdicts in the face of such admissions, judicial actors have paid considerable attention to developing safeguards to regulate how confessions are obtained. These protections, Mr. Big Operations (MBO) skillfully evade any sa
Applying Gladue Principles to Corbett Applications in R v King: A New Safeguard for Indigenous Accused Persons?
Defence counsel may prepare what is known as a Corbett application which prohibits the extent or use of the accused’s “record of conviction in cross-examination” to limit attacks against their credibility. While in the past some safeguards have been developed and used to prevent the misuse of a criminal record as evidence of guilt against the accused during cross-examination, the recent 2022 decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal (ONCA) in R v King adds an additional layer o
