Human Rights, Serious Crime and Criminal Procedure - College of ...

Why bother with Rights when Public Safety is at risk?the Law Commission has recently proposed the introduction ofa similar exception into English law in cases of murder. 111 Therehas been provision since 1996 for the referral of convictions bythe Criminal Cases Review Commission to the Court of Appealfor re-assessment, but no procedure for dealing with allegedlymistaken acquittals. The Law Commission's proposal wouldmean that a murder acquittal several years earlier could berevisited if the prosecution obtained significant new evidence,such as a DNA match from an article found at the scene. Theresult would be that an acquitted defendant would remain injeopardy of a further trial: presumably the argument is that thisshould only prey on the minds of those who are in fact guilty,who are not entitled to be left psychologically at peace on thismatter, although others might perhaps fear an unwarranted reopeningof their case.The sceptic is likely to rejoice in the exceptions recognised bythe Convention, and probably to urge English law to take fulladvantage of the exception in the Convention (rather thanrestricting it to murder). It is unlikely that prosecutors wouldwish to launch a second prosecution in many cases, but muchdepends on the drafting of the "new evidence" provision whichwould allow a further prosecution. Insofar as that is restrictivelydrafted, the sceptic would wish to see greater leeway forprosecutors and a reduced emphasis on the right. However, thebasic justifications for the right remain persuasive, and there arestrong arguments in favour of the restrictive English approach.E. CONFLICTING GOALS,CONFLICTING PRESSURESThe discussion in this lecture has shown how these fairly basicissues about criminal procedure and evidence can beapproached from at least two very different standpoints: that ofhuman rights, under the European Convention; and that of thesceptic, whose overriding concern is for what is termed "publicsafety." Different aspects of these conflicting perspectives willbe examined further in the two coming lectures; for the present,we may conclude the present discussion with a few remarksabout public safety, and a summary of the conflicting goals ofcriminal justice policy.(i) Public safetyThe assurance of public safety is prominent in all statements ofofficial criminal justice policy: the Home Office's key statement38