Functions of Criminal Cases Review Commission
| Author | JA Coutts |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002201839906300612 |
| Published date | 01 December 1999 |
| Date | 01 December 1999 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Functions
of
Criminal
Cases
Review
Commission
530), here there was no
other
remedy, as there was no right of appeal to
the Court of Appeal. As the jurisdiction of the High Court to
hear
applications for judicial review is determined on a case-by-case basis,
this decision may encourage the court to accept a wider scope for
intervention
than
it
has been prepared to exercise hitherto.
Functions of Criminal Cases Review Commission
Rv
CCRC,
ex p
Pearson
[1999] 3 All ER 498
The applicant for judicial review in this case had a turbulent childhood
and
then
lived with a
man
who
had a criminal record
and
who
was
violent. He left
her
to live with
another
woman,
whom
the applicant
stabbed to death, with the result that she was convicted of
murder
and
her
application for leave to appeal was refused by the Court of Appeal in
brief,
but
positive, terms. Some years later, she applied to the Home
Secretary asking him to refer
her
case to the Court of Appeal on the
ground that at the time of the killing
her
responsibility had been
impaired by reason of
an
underlying personality disorder aggravated by
her
violent upbringing, and, secondly, by a battered
woman
syndrome.
Before the Home Secretary had come to
any
final decision
upon
the
case, his powers in such matters had been transferred to the Criminal
Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which had been established by the
Criminal Appeal Act 1995, to take over the powers of
the
Secretary of
State in respect of
the
reference of such cases to
the
Court of Appeal. The
Commissioners
who
dealt
with
this case displayed little unanimity in
their discussions
and
some of
them
appear to have changed their minds
from time to time, which may explain why, in addition to informal
consultation, it was necessary to have no fewer
than
six formal sessions
before it was
announced
that
her
application would
not
result in
her
case being referred to
the
court. The Commissioners' reasons were that
there
was no likelihood of the Court of Appeal's acceding to
her
applica-
tion, that it should receive the fresh evidence she sought to adduce
under
s 23 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968
and
that
there was equally
no likelihood that
her
conviction would
not
be upheld. She applied for
judicial review of
the
decision of the Commission.
that
the Court of
Appeal may, 'if they think it necessary or expedient in
the
interests of
justice', receive
any
evidence which was
not
adduced at
the
trial. In
considering
whether
to do so, the court is required, by subsection (2), to
have regard to
whether
the
evidence:
(a) is capable of belief,
(b) affords a ground for allowing the appeal,
(c) would have
been
admissible at
the
trial on an appealable issue,
and
(d)
if
it were
not
adduced at
the
trial, there is a reasonable explana-
tion for that.
533
To continue reading
Request your trial