Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

cause-and-prejudice rule

Criminal law. The doctrine that a prisoner attacking the conviction or sentence (as by a petition for writ of habeas corpus) on the basis of a constitutional challenge that was not presented to the trial court, must show good cause for failing to preserve the objection at trial, and must show that the trial court's error actually prejudiced the defendant. & The cause that will excuse the defendant's procedural lapse must ordinarily be some objective factor that made presentation of the defense impractical at trial, such as the reasonable unavailability of the legal or factual basis of the defense at trial, or wrongful governmental interference. As for the prejudice element, the defendant must show that some actual prejudice, such as a constitutionally invalid sentence, resulted from the trial court's error. The cause-and-prejudice rule creates a higher burden than the defendant would face in a direct appeal because it is intended to provide protection from fundamental miscarriages of justice rather than from minor trial court errors. But in death-penalty cases in which the defendant proves actual innocence, the court may grant relief even when the standards of the cause-and-prejudice rule have not been met. See actual innocence under INNOCENCE.