Factors which determine the competence of a witness.

  

Date Posted: 2/7/2012 4:38:34 AM

Posted By: maxwellgoko  Membership Level: Bronze  Total Points: 45

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(a)The capacity of the witness to observe

This was applied in the case of united state v.Moore the witnesses were competent because they saw the defendant with handgun and the defendant pointed the gun at the witness some of the witnesses saw the defendant cleaning the gun and removing bullets and both of them had seen and fired a handgun before this means that they had a god knowledge on what a handgun was and could not confuse it with anything else therefore they were competent to be witnesses in this case.

(b)To remember
(c)To communicate whether orally or using sign language
(d)To understand the nature of the oath and duty it imposes to tell the truth.

This was observed in the case of United States v. Blankenship. It was stated in this case that the presumption is that every person is competent to be a witness if that person has personal knowledge of a matter and states that he or she will speak truthfully.


In the case Visser v. Packer engineering associates it was stated that a witness personal knowledge includes inference and opinions grounded in the observation of the first hand personal experience.


Under the common law system competency is determine by
1. Infancy
2. Religion beliefs
3. Marital relationship
4. Prior conviction

PRIOR CONVICTION
In the common law system convicts are not allowed to be witnesses on the ground that a person who disregarded society's morals is likely to do it again.

The group has done a good work but there are some spelling mistakes, omitted words and some work are not clearly elaborated

Like in the case of lunatic or mentally disabled persons there is an important factor that was determined in the case of Re De the admissibility of facilitated communication was held not to be admissible in the ground that the facilitator was in control and that

the communication is highly controversial and should be viewed with the greatest caution.

On spouse competence and compellability the group mentioned their competence and supported it with section 127 of the evidence act but did not state if this individuals can be compelled to give evidence against each other. Spouses cannot be compelled to give evidence against each other unless the offense charged involves an assault or injury to the wife or husband of the accused and also sexual offense.

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