R v Barnes
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 26 October 1990 |
| Date | 26 October 1990 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) |
Court of Appeal
Judge - conduct questions
In the exercise of his discretion, a trial judge was entitled to ask questions of a defendant in order to clarify matters, but it was important that he should not then enter into the arena by making comments indicating, for example, that he disbelieved the responses.
Further, the practice of inviting the jury to ask questions was, generally speaking, to be deprecated. Jurors were not familiar with the rules of evidence and might ask questions which would be difficult to deal with.
The Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Russell, Mr Justice Drake and Mr Justice Morland) so stated on October 9 when dismissing the appeal of Amanda Joy Barnes against her conviction on May 23, 1988 in Gloucester Crown Court, before Judge Smithies and a jury, of handling stolen goods, on which she was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, suspended for two years.
LORD JUSTICE RUSSELL said that at the end of the appellant's evidence the judge, it seemed, took the view that she should have been asked a number of searching questions. He indicated those to prosecuting counsel who, in his...
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Maureen Peters Appellant v The Queen Respondent
...the jury sought clarification of an initial on an exhibit produced by him and was not of a nature as to affect the fairness of the trial. R v Barnes [1990] 155 JP 417 applied. 9. That the judge wrongly directed counsel for the defendant to give his closing speech before counsel for the cro......
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Lynch v The Queen
...familiar with the rules of evidence, would decide whether the question is a proper one for the witness to answer. [See also R v. Barnes (1990) 155 JP 417] Indeed, the exchanges above demonstrate the undesirability of jury questions being asked directly without the pre-screening safeguard by......
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Kenute Lynch Appellant v The Queen Respondent
...( delivered 1st October 2010, unreported). 9 BVIHCRAP2009/0005 ( delivered 1st October 2010, unreported). 10 See also R v Barnes (1990) 155 JP 417. 11 SVGHCRAP2009/0016 ( delivered 16th April 2012, 12 SVGHCRAP2008/0006 ( delivered 29th April 2011, unreported). ...