Criminal Appeal (Northern Ireland) Act 1930
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1930 c. 45 |
| Year | 1930 |
Criminal Appeal (Northern Ireland) Act, 1930
(20 & 21 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 45.
An Act to establish a Court of Criminal Appeal in Northern Ireland and to amend the law relating to appeals in criminal cases in Northern Ireland.
[1st August 1930]
B E 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.
1 Constitution of Court of Criminal Appeal.
(1) There shall be a Court of Criminal Appeal in Northern Ireland (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the Court’), and all the judges of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland shall be judges of the Court.
(2) For the purpose of hearing and determining appeals under this Act, or any matter preliminary or incidental to an appeal, the Court shall be summoned in accordance with directions given by the Lord Chief Justice, and shall sit in Belfast except in cases where the Lord Chief Justice gives special directions that it shall sit at some other place.
(3) Subject to the provisions of the two subsections next following, the Court, for the purpose of hearing and determining appeals under this Act or any matter preliminary or incidental to an appeal, shall be duly constituted if it consists either of two or of three judges.
(4) Any matter preliminary or incidental to an appeal may be heard and determined by a single judge:
Provided that an appellant who is aggrieved by the decision of a single judge on any such matter shall be entitled to have the matter re-heard and determined by the Court as constituted in manner provided by the last foregoing subsection.
(5) Where any appeal or matter before the Court is heard by two judges and those judges differ in opinion, it shall be re-heard by three judges, and where any appeal or matter before the Court is heard by three judges, it shall be determined according to the opinion of the majority of those judges.
(6) The Lord Chief Justice, if present, and in his absence the senior member of the Court, shall be president of the Court.
(7) 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 directs, and no judgment with respect to the determination of any question shall be separately pronounced by any other member of the Court.
(8) The Court 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.
(9) Rules of court shall provide for securing sittings of the Court, if necessary during vacation.
(10) The registrar of the Supreme Court of Northern Ireland shall be the registrar of the Court (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the Registrar’), and the Lord Chief Justice may direct any other officer of, or attached to, the Supreme Court of Northern Ireland to render such assistance to the Registrar as the Lord Chief Justice may think necessary for the purposes of this Act and in the event of any vacancy in the office of the Registrar or in the event of the incapacity of the Registrar to act from any reason, the Lord Chief Justice may direct any other officer of the Supreme Court of Northern Ireland to exercise the powers and perform the duties of the Registrar under this Act.
(11) 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.
Right of Appeal and Determination of Appeals.
2 Right of appeal in criminal cases.
2. A person convicted on indictment may appeal under this Act to the Court—
(1) against his conviction on any ground of appeal which involves a question of law alone; and
(2) with the leave of the Court, or upon the certificate of the judge who tried him that it is a fit case for appeal, against his conviction on any ground of appeal which involves a question of fact alone or a question of mixed law and fact, or on any other ground which appears to the Court, or to the judge aforesaid, to be a sufficient ground of appeal; and
(3) with the leave of the Court, against the sentence passed on his conviction, unless the sentence is one fixed by law:
Provided that a person sentenced to penal servitude and preventive detention in pursuance of the Prevention of Crime Act, 1908, may appeal against the sentence without the leave of the Court.
3 Determination of appeals in ordinary cases.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Court on any such appeal against conviction shall allow the appeal if they think that—
(a ) 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
(b ) 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
(c ) 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 provisions of this Act, the Court shall, if they allow an appeal against conviction, quash the conviction and direct a judgment and verdict of acquittal to be entered.
(3) On any appeal, whether against conviction or against sentence, the Court 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 (whether more or less severe) in substitution therefor as they think ought to have been passed.
4 Powers of Court in special cases.
(1) If it appears to the Court 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 instead of allowing or dismissing the appeal, substitute for the verdict found by the jury a verdict of guilty on that other count or part of the indictment, and may either affirm the sentence passed on the appellant at the trial, or pass such sentence in substitution therefor as they may think proper, and as may be warranted in law by the verdict so substituted.
(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 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 by the verdict so substituted.
(3) Where on the conviction of the appellant the jury have found a special verdict, and the Court 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 may, instead of allowing the appeal, order such conclusion to be recorded as may appear 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 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.
5 Re-vesting and restitution of property on conviction.
(1) 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 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—
(a ) in any case until the expiration of ten days after the date of the conviction; and
(b ) in cases where notice of appeal or leave to appeal is given within ten days after the date of conviction, until the determination of the appeal;
and in cases where the operation of any such order, or the operation of the said provisions, is suspended until the determination of the appeal, the order or provisions, as the case may be, shall not take effect as to the property in question if the conviction is quashed on appeal.
Provision may be made by rules of court...
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