In what circumstances will the court allow evidence of extreme violence to be used in a murder trial?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from R. v. Williams, 2013 ONSC 3100 (CanLII):
In Masters v. People, 2002 Colo. LEXIS 906, the petitioner had been convicted of the murder of a woman whose body had been sexually mutilated. At trial, the prosecutor adduced over 1000 pages of graphically violent writings and drawings on such subjects as murder, torture, decapitation and dismemberment seized from a suitcase in the petitioner’s bedroom. Hatred of women was a common theme, and much of the violence in the written material had sexual overtones. The petitioner argued that the writings and drawings amounted to bad character evidence. The majority of the court disagreed, holding that the material was relevant, inter alia, to motive and, thus, it was more probative than prejudicial.
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