Canadian Criminal Procedure and Practice/Pleas

Plea of Guilty

 * Canadian Criminal Sentencing/Guilty Plea

Plea of Not Guilty
Where an accused refuses to make a plea or otherwise does not answer the question of plea, the presumption is that a plea of not guilty will be entered into the record (s. 606(2)).

Autrefois Acquit and Autrefois Convict
An accused is not acquitted until all available appeals have been exhausted.

An accused cannot plead to autrefoit acquit where the victim in the first trial is different from the victim in the second trial.

Where the facts and offence are substantially the same, the accused can rely on autrefois acquit or autrefois convict.

Where the crown abandons a prosecution after an adverse evidentiary decision, the defence cannot plead autrefois acquit at a later new trial on the same offence.

Res Judicata
The defence of res judicata prevent any convictions being entered for the same factual transactions as a previous conviction.

Res Judicata is "an act which underlies an offence or an act which forms part of a series of connected acts which make up the factual basis of an offence resulting in a conviction cannot be used to constitute the factual basis of a conviction for a conviction for another offence."

The principle was codified under s. 12 of the Code:

Double Jeopardy
Section 11(h) of the Charter states that "Any person charged with an offence has the right ...if finally acquitted of the offence, not to be tried for it again and, if finally found guilty and punished for the offence, not to be tried or punished for it again"

The rule against double jeopardy means that a person cannot be convicted of a single criminal offence twice.

For the right under s.11(h) to apply the court must determine 1) whether the matter is of a "public nature, intended to promote public order and welfare within a public sphere of activity" and 2) whether the matter involves "the imposition of true penal consequences"

Kienapple principle

 * See Canadian Criminal Procedure and Practice/Judgements