Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

CHAPTER 16
The Court of Appeal
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, after a trial has been completed there
are 28 days in which the verdict can be appealed under Section 1 of the Criminal
Appeal Act 1968 (Walker, 1999c). There are two broad grounds for appeal
(Taylor & Mansfield, 1999). First, it can be appealed on a point of law (i.e. that
the judge made some procedural error, such as excluding evidence that should
have been allowed), and second, on the basis of fresh evidence or argument. If
the fresh evidence was available at the time of the trial then questions will be
asked as to why it was not used. The explanations and reasons given may or
may not be accepted. In other instances, and this applies to several of the cases
included in following chapters, the fresh evidence was not available at the time
of trial (e.g. new scientific developments). If the application for leave to appeal
was not submitted within the 28 day period (occasionally applications ‘out of
time’ are allowed), or if the appeal was not allowed or had failed, then, until
31 March 1997, applications in England and Wales had to be made to the Home
Secretary and in Northern Ireland to the Secretary of State.
Since 31 March 1997, the functions of the Secretary of State in cases under
appeal have been taken over by the Criminal Cases Review Commission
(CCRC), which is an independent body investigating alleged miscarriages of
justice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Leigh, 1997). It has no jurisdiction
in Ireland, Scotland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. The
principal role of the Commission is to review the cases of people who claim
that they were wrongly convicted or sentenced. The Commission can seek further
information relating to a particular case and carry out its own inquiries
or arrange for an investigation to be undertaken by others (e.g. a police force).
In cases of disputed confession, the Commission may refer such cases to psychologists,
psychiatrists and linguistic experts for advice or an assessment prior
to deciding whether or not to refer the case to the Court of Appeal. The Commission
refers a case to the Court of Appeal when it considers that there is a real
possibility that the conviction or sentence will be considered unsafe on appeal.
James, Taylor and Walker (2000) provide a review of the work of the CCRC
since its inauguration in April 1997. At the end of August 1999, over 2700 new
applications had been received, of which 54 had been referred to the Court of
Appeal. Out of 21 cases heard in the Court of Appeal, 14 (67%) were successful
in terms of the conviction or sentenced being quashed, including the case of