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CRIMINAL PROCEDURE (SENTENCE INDICATION)
AMENDMENT BILL 1992
NEW SOUTH WALES
EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This Explanatory Note relates to this Bill as introduced into Parliament)
The object of this Bill is to amend the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 to enable a
sentence indication hearings pilot scheme to be conducted by the District Court between
1 February 1993 and 31 January 1995 (both dates inclusive) at such place or places and
subject to such conditions (if any) as the Chief Judge of the District Court may
determine and notify by publication of a practice note. The proposed amendment applies
only to a pilot scheme notified in this manner. The proposed amendment applies to
offences committed before or after the commencement of the amendments.
The pilot scheme will enable an accused person, on or before being called on to
plead, to apply for a sentence indication hearing. At the sentence indication hearing, the
presiding judge may indicate to the accused person what sentence the person is likely to
receive from the judge if, when called on to plead, the person were to plead guilty to the
offence charged or to another, or a lesser, offence arising out of the same circumstances.
In giving a sentence indication, the judge is entitled to have regard to such material as
would be available to the judge when passing sentence on an accused person who has
pleaded guilty.
The Bill also enables the judge who conducts a sentence indication hearing to make
certain orders directed at suppressing premature publication of matter that might identify
the accused person or of other matter, disclosed at the hearing, that might prejudice the
right of the accused person to a fair trial, should the accused person plead not guilty to
the offence charged. A suppression order may be limited to apply only until such time
as the accused person has pleaded guilty, or a jury has returned its verdict, in relation to
the offence concerned.
A breach of a suppression order may be dealt with as if it were a contempt
committed in the face or hearing of the District Court.
The Bill provides that the proposed provisions are not to be taken as limiting powers
that the District Court, or judges of that Court, otherwise possess.
Clause 1 specifies the short title of the proposed Act.
Clause 2 provides for the commencement of the proposed Act on assent.
Clause 3 amends the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 to give effect to the object
referred to above.