InBrief

Attorney General Greg�Smith�has announced that�a draft Bill outlining proposed changes to the "right to silence" law has been posted on the website of the Department of Attorney General & Justice today and has encouraged stakeholders to comment on the planned changes. Submissions should be sent to The Director, Criminal Law Review, Department of Attorney General and Justice, GPO Box 6, Sydney 2001, or by email to lpclrd@agd.nsw.gov.au. Submissions may be made publicly available unless you advise that you wish all or part of your submission to be treated as confidential. The closing date for submissions is 28 September 2012.

The amendments will allow magistrates and juries (and judges in judge-alone trials) in proceedings for serious indictable offences to draw an unfavourable inference against an accused who fails to mention facts when questioned by police but later seeks to rely on those facts by way of defence at their trial, subject to the accused having been properly cautioned and afforded an opportunity to obtain legal advice. A fact the accused later relies on is one which, in the circumstances existing at the time of questioning, the accused could reasonably have been expected to mention. Those under 18 years of age and those having a cognitive impairment will be exempt from an unfavourable inference being drawn.

27 September 2012