Witness Coaching by a Prosecutor
Keywords:
witness, preparation of the witness, coaching of the witness, adversarial principle and preparation of the witness, communication of the prosecutor with the witness, admissibility of communication with the witness, communication rule.Abstract
The Article touches the rule of admissibility of communication of the Prosecutor with the witness in view of his/her preparation for the trial and the line between coaching and preparation of the witness by the prosecutor. The Criminal Code of Practice fails to regulate the hereof issue and thus, allows interpretation of the parties of the criminal proceedings. The Article analyzes the degree of compliance of the witness preparation by the prosecutor with the principles of equality and adversarial principle between the parties of the criminal proceedings, provides the mechanisms for risk prevention not to allow coaching of the witness by the prosecutor prior to testimony turning into coaching and hence, the Article provides proposals in view of regulation of the hereof issue on the legislative level.
References
Law of Georgia On “Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia”, the Legislative Herald of Georgia 31, 03.11.2009.
The Decree of the Prosecutor General of Georgia of June 19, 2006 №5 on “Endorsement of the Code of Conduct for the Employees of the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia”, Article 10, part 1.
The “Report by the Public Defender of Georgia on the State of Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia for 2015”, 648, <http://www.ombudsman.ge/uploads/other/3/3512.pdf#page=16&zoom=auto,-121,792>, [seen 05,09,2016].
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People v Liverpool, 262 AD 2D 425 (2d Dept 1999).
Nixon v. United States, 563, 1988, Smith V. Kelly, №7:07 cv 00536, 2008 wl 345838.
Geders v. United States, 425 U.S., 80 (1976).
R v Momodou & Limani (2005) EWCA Crim 177. §.61 (2005), <http://swarb.co.uk/regina-v-momodou-and-limani-cacd-2-feb-2005-2/>, [280.2016].
Geders v. United States, 425 U.S., 80, (1976).
