Statutes Amendment (Criminal Procedure) Act 2005 (SA)

South Australia

Statutes Amendment (Criminal Procedure) Act 2005

An Act to amend the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935; the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Act 1998; the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1991; the Magistrates Court Act 1991; and the Summary Procedure Act 1921.

The Parliament of South Australia enacts as follows:

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

This Act may be cited as the Statutes Amendment (Criminal Procedure) Act 2005.

2—Commencement

This Act will come into operation on a day to be fixed by proclamation.

3—Amendment provisions

In this Act, a provision under a heading referring to the amendment of a specified Act amends the Act so specified.

Part 2—Amendment of Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935

4—Insertion of sections 285BA, 285BB and 285BC

After section 285B insert:

285BA—Power to serve notice to admit facts

1. (1)

   A court before which a defendant is to be tried on information may, on application by the Director of Public Prosecutions, authorise the Director of Public Prosecutions to serve on the defence a notice to admit specified facts.

2. (2)

   The court may, in granting such an authorisation, fix a time within which the notice is to be complied with.

3. (3)

   The notice must contain a warning, in the prescribed form, to the effect that, if the defendant is convicted, the court is required to take an unreasonable failure to make an admission in response to the notice into account in fixing sentence.

4. (4)

   This section does not abrogate the privilege against self-incrimination and a refusal to make an admission on the ground that the admission would tend to incriminate the defendant of an offence is not to be made the subject of comment to a jury.

5. (5)

   An order under this section may only be made at a directions hearing at which the defendant is represented by a legal practitioner unless the court is satisfied that—

   1. (a)

      the defendant has voluntarily chosen to be unrepresented; or

   2. (b)

      the defendant is unrepresented for reasons attributable to the defendant's own fault.

6. (6)

   If a defendant unreasonably fails to make an admission in response to a notice under this section, and the defendant is convicted, the court should take the failure into account in fixing sentence.

7. (7)

   Without limiting subsection (6), a defendant unreasonably fails to make an admission if the defendant—

   1. (a)

      claims privilege against self-incrimination as a reason for not making the admission; and

   2. (b)

      thus puts the prosecution to proof of facts that are not seriously contested at the trial.

285BB—Power to require notice of intention to adduce certain kinds of evidence

1. (1)

   A court before which a defendant is to be tried on information may, on application by the prosecutor, require the defence to give the Director of Public Prosecutions written notice of an intention to introduce evidence of any of the following kinds:

   1. (a)

      evidence tending to establish that the defendant was mentally incompetent to commit the alleged offence or is mentally unfit to stand trial;

   2. (b)

      evidence tending…