NCJ Number
193446
Journal
White Paper Volume: 15 Issue: 3 Dated: May/June 2001 Pages: 31-33
Date Published
2001
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article describes the development of Canada's first "electronic courtroom," which was established as a means of presenting evidence in the largest tax fraud case ever prosecuted in that country.
Abstract
In 1995, a year prior to the initiation of the preliminary hearing in the case, the Toronto Prosecutor's Office had acquired a state-of-the-art imaging system to "digitize" documents. The system not only provided a less costly method of disclosure than paper, but its search engine was a powerful analytical investigative tool; however, there was no effective method for presenting the digitized evidence to a judge and jury. In 1999, with the support of the Province of Ontario and Revenue Canada, the first electronic courtroom in Canada became a reality. To prepare for the case, the Prosecutor's Office electronically scanned every piece of evidence and stored the data on 45 CD-ROMs. The courtroom was wired to accommodate 18 computer screens, which could flash evidence within seconds to the jury box, the judge, the Crown and defense counsels, the witness box, the court reporters, the accused in the prisoner's dock, and the courtroom audience in the public seating area. At the fraud examiner's station, a computer was installed that could search the entire evidence database for documents during court proceedings. A "broadcast" computer was at the core of the system. From this computer, an operator could search for and transfer images to all the computer screens in the courtroom.