Criminal Appeal Act 1907
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1907 c. 23 |
Criminal Appeal Act, 1907.
(7 Edw. 7.) CHAPTER 23.
An Act to establish a Court of Criminal Appeal and to amend the Law relating to Appeals in Criminal Cases.
[28th August 1907]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Court of Criminal Appeal.
Court of Criminal Appeal.
1 Constitution of Court of Criminal Appeal.
(1) There shall be a Court of Criminal Appeal, and the Lord Chief Justice of England and eight judges of the King's Bench Division of the High Court, appointed for the purpose by the Lord Chief Justice with the consent of the Lord Chancellor for such period as he thinks desirable in each case, shall be judges of that court.
(2) For the purpose of hearing and determining appeals under this Act, and for the purpose of any other proceedings, under this Act, the Court of Criminal Appeal shall be summoned in accordance with directions given by the Lord Chief Justice of England with the consent of the Lord Chancellor, and the court shall be duly constituted if it consists of not less than three judges and of an uneven number of judges.
If the Lord Chief Justice so directs, the court may sit in two or more divisions.
The court shall sit in London except in cases where the Lord Chief Justice gives special directions that it shall sit at some other place.
(3) The Lord Chief Justice, if present, and in his absence the senior member of the court, shall be president of the court.
(4) The determination of any question before the Court of Criminal Appeal shall be according to the opinion of the majority of the members of the court hearing the case.
(5) Unless the court direct to the contrary in cases where, in the opinion of the court, the question is a question of law on which it would be convenient that separate judgments should be pronounced by the members of the court, the judgment of the court shall be pronounced by the president of the court or such other member of the court hearing the case as the president of the court directs, and no judgment with respect to the determination of any question shall be separately pronounced by any other member of the court.
(6) If in any case the Director of Public Prosecutions or the prosecutor or defendant obtains the certificate of the Attorney General that the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal involves a point of law of exceptional public importance, and that it is desirable in the public interest that a further appeal should be brought, he may appeal from that decision to the House of Lords, but subject thereto the determination by the Court of Criminal Appeal of any appeal or other matter which it has power to determine shall be final, and no appeal shall lie from that court to any other court.
(7) The Court of Criminal Appeal shall be a superior court of record, and shall, for the purposes of and subject to the provisions of this Act, have full power to determine, in accordance with this Act, any questions necessary to be determined for the purpose of doing justice in the case before the court.
(8) Rules of court shall provide for securing sittings of the Court of Criminal Appeal, if necessary, during vacation.
(9) Any direction which may be given by the Lord Chief Justice under this section may, in the event of any vacancy in that office, or in the event of the incapacity of the Lord Chief Justice to act from any reason, be given by the senior judge of the Court of Criminal Appeal.
2 Registrar of the Court of Criminal Appeal.
2. There shall be a Registrar of the Court of Criminal Appeal (in this Act referred to as the Registrar) who shall be appointed by the Lord Chief Justice from among the Masters of the Supreme Court acting in the King's Bench Division, and shall be entitled to such additional salary (if any), and be provided with such additional staff (if any), in respect of the office of Registrar as the Lord Chancellor, with the concurrence of the Treasury, may determine.
The senior Master of the Supreme Court shall be the first registrar.
Right of Appeal and Determination of Appeals.
Right of Appeal and Determination of Appeals.
3 Right of appeal in criminal cases.
3. A person convicted on indictment may appeal under this Act to the Court of Criminal Appeal—
4 Determination of appeals in ordinary cases.
(1) The Court of Criminal Appeal on any such appeal against conviction shall allow the appeal if they think that the verdict of the jury should be set aside on the ground that it is unreasonable or cannot be supported having regard to the evidence, or that the judgment of the court before whom the appellant was convicted should be set aside on the ground of a wrong decision of any question of law or that on any ground there was a miscarriage of justice, and in any other case shall dismiss the appeal:
Provided that the court may, notwithstanding that they are of opinion that the point raised in the appeal might be decided in favour of the appellant, dismiss the appeal if they consider that no substantial miscarriage of justice has actually occurred.
(2) Subject to the special provisions of this Act, the Court of Criminal Appeal shall, if they allow an appeal against conviction, quash the conviction and direct a judgment and verdict of acquittal to be entered.
(3) On an appeal against sentence the Court of Criminal Appeal shall, if they think that a different sentence should have been passed, quash the sentence passed at the trial, and pass such other sentence warranted in law by the verdict (whether more or less severe) in substitution therefor as they think ought, to have been passed, and in any other case shall dismiss the appeal.
5 Powers of court in special cases.
(1) If it appears to the Court of Criminal Appeal that an appellant, though not properly convicted on some count or part of the indictment, has been properly convicted on some other count or part of the indictment, the court may either affirm the sentence passed on the appellant at the trial, or pass such sentence in substitution therefor as they think proper, and as may be warranted in law by the verdict on the count or part of the indictment on which the court consider that the appellant has been properly convicted.
(2) Where an appellant has been convicted of an offence and the jury could on the indictment have found him guilty of some, other offence, and on the finding of the jury it appears to the Court of Criminal Appeal that the jury must have been satisfied of facts which proved him guilty of that other offence, the court may, instead of allowing or dismissing the appeal, substitute for the verdict found by the jury a verdict of guilty of that other offence, and pass such sentence in Substitution for the sentence passed at the trial as may be warranted in law for that other offence, not being a sentence of greater severity.
(3) Where on the conviction of the appellant the jury have found a special verdict, and the Court of Criminal Appeal consider that a wrong conclusion has been arrived at by the court before which the appellant has been convicted on the effect of that verdict, the Court of Criminal Appeal may, instead of allowing the appeal, order such conclusion to be recorded as appears to the court to be in law required by the verdict, and pass such sentence in substitution for the sentence passed at the trial as may be warranted in law.
(4) If on any appeal it appears to the Court of Criminal Appeal that, although the appellant was guilty of the act or omission charged against him, he was insane at the time the act was done or omission made so as not to be responsible according to law for his actions, the court may quash the sentence passed at the trial and order the appellant to be kept in custody as a criminal lunatic under the Trial of Lunatics Act, 1883 , in the same manner as if a special verdict had been found by the jury under that Act.
6 Re-vesting and restitution of property on conviction.
6. The operation of any order for the restitution of any property to any person made on a conviction on indictment, and the operation, in case of any such conviction, of the provisions of subsection (1) of section twenty-four of the Sale of Goods Act, 1893, as to the re-vesting of the property in stolen goods on conviction, shall (unless the court before whom the conviction takes place direct to the contrary in any case in which, in their opinion, the title to the property is not in dispute) be suspended—
and in cases where the operation of...
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