Practical aspects of the confrontation of the defendant in criminal proceedings

Abstract

Confrontation is complex institute of criminal procedure law, which consists of the normative, criminalistic and psychological aspects. In order to gain complete understanding about it, we considered it necessary to point to its practical aspects which, hasn't been written about so far. This paper presents a selection of cases encountered by the author during his professional engagement in the judiciary. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate, based on the transcripts of the main hearing and the rationale behind court judgements, the manner in which the court conducted the confrontations, what the statements of confronted persons sounded like, as well as the manner in which the court evaluated these statements individually and in mutual relationship, but also in light of other evidence. What is specifically shown is the manner in which the court has described the reactions of confronted parties and the conclusions it has derived from that.

Keywords

• defendant
• confrontation
• testimony evaluation
• practical aspects