A trial judge's duty to correct inaccurate submissions by defence counsel in a summing up must be exercised with restraint; the sheer volume of corrections, combined with a summary of the defence case in terms conveying scepticism or ridicule, can render the summing up so unbalanced as to occasion a miscarriage of justice, even where the Crown case is strong and the individual corrections are justified. The strength of the prosecution case does not diminish the obligation to present the defence case fairly and in neutral terms. Separately, the Weiss proviso principles apply when assessing whether a substantial miscarriage of justice resulted from a failure to discharge a jury following wrongful admission of evidence.
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