Give a Dog a Bad Name and Hang Him
The use of previous convictions to prove the guilt of the defendant in criminal trial
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Abstract
Based on what the legal culture of common law has called character evidence, the work aims to analyze a particular type of evidence that falls into that category: the previous convictions of the accused person as evidence of his guilt in a criminal process. The analysis is based on the epistemic and non-epistemic reasons for including or excluding this type of evidence. The relevance of this evidence is addressed and certain criteria are proposed with the aim of determining when a previous conviction may be relevant and to what extent. Also the question of whether this type of evidence generates a prejudice to the defendant is addressed. Finally, the moral discussions are highlighted in relation to the principle of autonomy and the offender-based criminal law.
Keywords
character evidence, criminal records, relevance, prejudice, offender-based, offender-based criminal lawDownloads
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.33115/udg_bib/qf.i9.23093Published
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