R. v. Williams, [1998] 1 S.C.R. 1128 v. Williams was a criminal case, heard by the Supreme Court of Canada, in which the accused appealed the decision of; Court of Appeal for British Columbia. Facts: Victor Daniel Williams is an aboriginal man who pleaded not guilty but was charged via trial by judge and jury for the robbery of a pizza parlour in October, 1993. in Victoria BC. His defence was that another aboriginal had committed the crime. Williams challenged the jury on the basis of s.638 of the criminal code “an accused is entitled to any number of challenges on the ground that.. a juror is not indifferent between the Queen and the accused” as they had established significant amounts of prejudice against aboriginals, which was dismissed in the Court Of Appeal, leading to his conviction. Issue(s) of Appeal: “Whether or not Williams has the right to challenge jurors …show more content…
Williams was granted the right to challenge for cause in his first trial because s.638 of the code by: Hutchison J. who granted The Crown a mistrial on the basis of “procedural errors… coupled with the “unfortunate publicity” of the jury selection process.” The accused objected arguing that The Crown was merely attempting to achieve a “reversal of the challenge for cause”. Hutchison J. granted the application of mistrial and replied “that he doubted this would happen, given the case law...” The Second Trial (1994), Mr. Williams's motion allowing him to challenge jurors for cause was rejected by Esson C. J. who acknowledged that there was a possibility that jurors would be biased against Williams, however he still ruled that the general basis would be insufficient in disrupting the assumption of juror impartiality as the “...jury system provides safeguards against such biases” opting for a more cost efficient analysis. Vickers J. who presided at the trial “dismissed a renewed application to challenge potential jurors for cause” which ultimately led to his conviction. The Court Of Appeal