Stubbs v The Queen
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judge | Lord Lloyd-Jones,Lord Hamblen,Lord Kerr,Lord Kitchin,Lord Burrows |
| Judgment Date | 02 November 2020 |
| Neutral Citation | [2020] UKPC 27 |
| Docket Number | Privy Council Appeal No 0030 and 0031 of 2019 and 0005 of 2020 |
| Court | Privy Council |
| Date | 02 November 2020 |
[2020] UKPC 27
Lord Kerr
Lord Lloyd-Jones
Lord Kitchin
Lord Hamblen
Lord Burrows
Privy Council Appeal No 0030 and 0031 of 2019 and 0005 of 2020
Michaelmas Term
From the Court of Appeal of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas
Appellant
(Stubbs)
Edward Fitzgerald QC
Murrio Ducille
(Instructed by Simons Muirhead & Burton LLP)
Appellant
(Davis)
Richard Thomas
Ian Cargill
(Instructed by Simons Muirhead & Burton LLP)
Appellant
(The Queen)
Peter Knox QC
Tom Poole
(Instructed by Charles Russell Speechlys LLP)
Respondent
(The Queen)
Peter Knox QC
Tom Poole
(Instructed by Charles Russell Speechlys LLP)
Respondent
(Evans)
Ben Cooper QC
Amanda Clift-Matthews
Romona A Farquharson
(Instructed by Simons Muirhead & Burton LLP)
Heard on 2, 6 and 7 July 2020
Lord Lloyd-Jones AND( with whom Lord Kerr, Lord Kitchin and Lord Burrows agree)
This is a case with a long history. It relates to an alleged murder and attempted murder committed in Nassau in the Bahamas on 29 March 1999. The appellants (Stubbs and Davis) and the respondent to the Crown's appeal (Evans) (together “the defendants”) were charged with the murder and attempted murder in April 1999. Since then there have been three trials and three Court of Appeal hearings. This is the second appeal to the Privy Council.
This appeal relates to the third trial which was presided over by Jones J in July 2013. It resulted in the conviction of all three defendants on both charges and a sentence of life imprisonment for each of them on the murder charge. The defendants appealed against conviction and sentence. In its judgment dated 24 January 2019, the Court of Appeal dismissed the conviction appeals of Stubbs and Davis but allowed that of Evans. It allowed the sentence appeal of Stubbs and Davis, replacing their life sentences with sentences of 45 years imprisonment. Stubbs and Davis now appeal to the Privy Council against conviction and sentence. The Crown appeals against the Court of Appeal's decision to quash Evans's conviction, or, alternatively, not to order a retrial. The appeals have been consolidated.
The central issues in the appeals concern the admission of identification evidence, including what is said to be ‘dock identification’ evidence, the admission of a police analyst's ballistics report without the analyst being required to give oral evidence, and the judge's directions on these and other matters.
On 29 March 1999, at about 1.30am, Jimmy Ambrose, a police officer, and Marcian Scott, were at the nightclub Club Rock located on Bay Street in Nassau. Scott had been a police officer and was either still with the police or had recently become a security officer. Both were in plain clothes. While they were inside the club a fight broke out between two groups of men. One of those men approached the officers to report what had happened, and he, along with a second man, went with the officers outside. While the officers were talking with the two men, some men who had been part of the other group in the fight emerged from the front door of the club. Some of these men had firearms and began shooting in the direction of the officers and the two men. Scott identified two of the men with firearms as Stubbs and Davis. As the officers and the two men attempted to run away, Ambrose was set upon by a man alleged to be Davis, who grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground. The man then kicked Ambrose, produced a gun and fired at Ambrose as he lay on the ground. Two other men, alleged to be Stubbs and Evans, joined this man and also fired at Ambrose while he was on the ground. The men who had attacked Ambrose ran off.
Meanwhile, police officers Garath Ryan and Antoine Duncombe, who had been at the Cocktails and Dreams nightclub west of Club Rock, heard gunshots and observed people running from Club Rock to the parking lot of Cocktails and Dreams. The officers saw a male come into the parking lot holding what appeared to be a black firearm in his hand. He approached a reddish coloured Honda vehicle which was about 20–30 feet from their position and slid the firearm under the car. The man then ran back towards the road and entered a white Mustang vehicle, which drove away. Ryan and Duncombe identified this man as Stubbs. The officers made their way to the Honda car and Duncombe retrieved a black pistol from under it. No fingerprints were found on the gun. The ballistics evidence was that the gun matched bullet casings found outside Club Rock. Ryan and Duncombe proceeded to Club Rock's parking lot where they saw a group of persons standing around Ambrose. Davis was standing with the group. He was pointed out as being one of the men who shot the policeman.
Two other police officers, Inspector Calvin Robinson and Officer Frank Burrows, were also in the area after 1 am and heard gunshots. They said they saw a man running from the parking lot outside Club Rock and into an alley. While he was running, the man turned and pointed a gun at Burrows and Robinson, although he did not fire it. This man they said was Evans. Robinson said he then saw Evans attempt to conceal the gun in a pile of sand that was part of a construction site. Another officer, Constable Knowles, who had just arrived at this scene, searched the sand and retrieved the gun. The ballistics evidence was that the handgun matched bullet casings collected from outside Club Rock.
Ambrose died at 4 pm on 29 March 1999.
On the same day, the defendants were interviewed under caution by Superintendent Elsworth Moss and Acting Superintendent Hutcheson on suspicion of shooting Ambrose. Each of the defendants said they had been at Club Rock that night but denied any involvement in the shooting.
On 8 April 1999 the defendants were charged with murder (of Ambrose) and attempted murder (of Scott). Evans was also charged with firearms offences.
In June 1999 and January 2000, a preliminary inquiry was held during which evidence was taken from several witnesses. Identification evidence was given by Scott and by John Campbell, who had been outside Club Rock at the time of the shooting. He had given a statement to the police on 29 March 1999 describing the three men he said had attacked Ambrose. He had also attended an identification parade on 30 March 1999 in respect of which he made a statement the same day.
The first trial took place between 14 May 2002 and 18 June 2002 before Allen J (as she then was) and a jury. A fourth defendant, Newbald, was acquitted at the close of the prosecution case. The defendants were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Their convictions were overturned on appeal on 8 March 2004.
The defendants' second trial commenced on 5 February 2007 before Isaacs J (as he then was) and a jury. The trial was aborted on 27 February 2007 on the first day of Isaacs J's summing up, due to the jury reporting that a third party had attempted to influence one of the jurors.
The third trial took place between 10 June and 25 July 2013 before Jones J and a jury. The defendants were convicted of all offences. The defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and ten years' imprisonment for attempted murder. Evans was also sentenced to three years for each firearms offence. All sentences were to run concurrently.
Following the convictions at the third trial, the defendants appealed. When the defendants came before the Court of Appeal on 4 May 2015 (Conteh, Isaacs and Adderley JJA), Isaacs JA was asked to recuse himself on account of his previous involvement in the second trial. The application was refused by a written judgment dated 4 June 2015 and the appeal hearing continued between 14 and 25 September 2015 before Conteh, Isaacs and Crane-Scott JJA.
On 8 July 2016, the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the appeals against conviction and sentence in respect of Stubbs and Davis. The majority of the Court of Appeal (Conteh and Isaacs JJA) dismissed the appeal of Evans. Crane-Scott JA dissented and would have upheld Evan's appeal against conviction in respect of all four offences.
The defendants appealed against conviction and sentence to the Privy Council, the appeal being heard on 2 July 2018. In its judgment of 18 October 2018, the Privy Council allowed the three appeals against conviction on the ground that Isaacs JA should have recused himself from the hearing of the appeal in the Court of Appeal: [2018] UKPC 30; [2019] AC 868. The case was remitted to the Court of Appeal for a re-hearing of the appeal before a differently constituted court. Since the Board upheld the defendants' appeal on the basis of the failure of Isaacs JA to recuse himself, it did not hear oral argument on the remaining grounds of appeal and made no findings on those grounds.
The rehearing in the Court of Appeal took place on 12 to 14 November 2018 before Longley P, and Barnett and Evans JJA. Judgment was delivered on 24 January 2019. In respect of both Stubbs and Davis, the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed their appeals against conviction and their applications to adduce fresh evidence. However, it allowed their appeals against sentence and replaced their life sentences in each case with sentences of 45 years' imprisonment. After taking into account time already spent in custody, 35 years' imprisonment was imposed on Stubbs and 34 years imprisonment was imposed on Davis, both to run from the date of the Court of Appeal judgment.
In respect of Evans, the Court of Appeal allowed his appeal against his convictions for murder and attempted murder and quashed these convictions. However, it dismissed Evan's appeals against...
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...be sufficient to counter any prejudice to which the accused might have been exposed ( Stubbs and Davis v Queen and Evans v The Queen [2020] UKPC 27, at paragraph 77 and R v Neilly, at paragraph 69 Where dock identification is permitted, a trial judge has a responsibility to warn the jury o......
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...Peter Stewart v The Queen [2011] UKPC 11, which was cited at paragraph 79 of the recent Privy Council decision of Stubbs and Davis v R [2020] UKPC 27. Where prior knowledge is only by way of an alias or “nickname”, a formal identification parade may be appropriate (see R v Forbes, R v Meg......
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Darlington Noel v The King
...consistent with the overall aim of section 114 of the Evidence Act to restrict the admissibility of unreliable identification evidence. Stubbs v The Queen; Davis v The Queen; The Queen v Evans [2020] UKPC 27 applied. Darlington Noel's appeal The court retains a discretion in relation to ad......
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Darlington Noel v The King
...consistent with the overall aim of section 114 of the Evidence Act to restrict the admissibility of unreliable identification evidence. Stubbs v The Queen; Davis v The Queen; The Queen v Evans [2020] UKPC 27 applied. Darlington Noel's appeal The court retains a discretion in relation to ad......