Report and Recommendations - Scottish Government

accused’s first appearance on petition, is instructed only in a limited numberof murder and rape cases.6.2.64 The revival of judicial examination failed as an experiment. This failurestarted with the disapproval of the use of prepared statements 61 and wascompleted with the decision that exculpatory statements were inadmissible,notwithstanding that they were made in the context of a statutory procedure 62 .The judicial view was that the use of the procedure as a substitute fortestimony required to be “stamped out” 63 . As it is recommended that thereshould be no bar on questioning by the police after a charge has been made,provided judicial sanction is obtained, judicial examination will beunnecessary. The use of the judicial examination procedure has rightly falleninto disuse, and in future should serve no purpose. The procedure should belaid to rest by its formal abolition. For similar reasons, since accused personsbrought before the sheriff on petition hardly ever emit declarations in practice,this part of criminal procedure should cease to exist. A person shouldcontinue to be brought before the sheriff, but not for examination. There maybe a continuation for further “investigation” prior to full committal, but theprocedure should be modernised to take account of what actually happens inpractice.61 Carmichael v Armitage 1983 JC 862 Hendry v HM Advocate 1985 JC 10563 ibid LJ-C (Wheatley) at 109200