The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred two cases to the Court of Appeal where judges directed juries to return guilty verdicts without giving the jurors the opportunity to retire to consider their verdict.
Mr Iorwerth Jones was convicted by a jury of causing criminal damage to the roof of Llandovery Town Hall at Carmarthen Crown Court in September 1994. He admitted causing the damage but contended that he had a lawful excuse for carrying it out.
The judge ruled that nothing raised by the defence evidence was legally capable of amounting to a lawful excuse, and directed the jury formally to return a verdict of guilty without retiring to consider their verdict.
Mr Jones’s application to the Court of Appeal for an extension of time to appeal his conviction was dismissed in September 1997.
After initially declining to refer his case to the Court of Appeal in 1999, the Commission reconsidered Mr Jones’s case in the light of the decision of the House of Lords in R v Wang [2005] UKHL 9, in which the House of Lords declared that there are no circumstances in which a judge is entitled to direct a jury to return a verdict of guilty.
Mr Edward Caley-Knowles was convicted by a jury of assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Kendal Crown Court in October 1972. He admitted the assault but claimed it was justified. The judge directed that there was no such defence in law and directed the jury formally to return a verdict of guilty without retiring to consider their verdict.
The Court of Appeal dismissed an application by Mr Caley-Knowles in 1973. He applied to the Commission following the decision of the House of Lords in R v Wang [2005].
The Commission has referred both cases after considering whether:
· a conviction which is the result of a direction by the trial judge to the jury to convict where that jury has not been permitted to retire, choose a foreman, deliberate and deliver a collective verdict, is safe and;
· Regardless of the overwhelming evidence of guilt, a jury must have opportunity to deliver its verdict if its constitutional role is not to be undermined.
The Commission is the independent public body set up by Parliament in 1997 to investigate possible miscarriages of justice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to decide if they should be referred to the appeal courts.
This press release was issued by Boris Worrall, Head of Communication, Criminal Cases Review Commission on 0121 633 1806 or 07947 355231.
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