What is the test for admitting new evidence in a criminal case?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from R. v. Huenemann, 1993 CanLII 170 (BC CA):

35 Under s. 683(1)(d) of the Criminal Code this court has a discretion, where it considers it in the interests of justice, to admit fresh evidence such as that tendered by the appellant in this case. The principles governing the exercise of that discretion were stated by McIntyre J. in Palmer v. The Queen, 1979 CanLII 8 (SCC), [1980] 1 S.C.R. 759, at 775: (1)The evidence should generally not be admitted if, by due diligence, it could have been adduced at trial provided that this general principle will not be applied as strictly in a criminal case as in civil cases: see McMartin v. The Queen. (2)The evidence must be relevant in the sense that it bears upon a decisive or potentially decisive issue in the trial. (3)The evidence must be credible in the sense that it is reasonably capable of belief, and (4)It must be such that if believed it could reasonably, when taken with the other evidence adduced at trial, be expected to have affected the result.

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