Law Weblog

Monday 22 November 2010 at 7:36 am | In News | Post Comment

*R v C  [2010] (CA)
[Expert evidence – DNA]
D was alleged to have raped V at her house many years previously.  No DNA profiles were obtained from swabs taken at that time. Advances in DNA technology led to a further analysis of the swabs.  The quantity of the sample was below 50 picograms and D claimed the random (stochastic) effects were likely to be considerable.    The stochastic threshold of 100 to 200 picograms was established in Reed and another; R v Garmson[2009].
At the voi dire, the judge held that the evidence should not be excluded under s 78 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. He agreed with the FSS expert that it was not the quantity of the DNA that necessarily mattered but its quality and reliability.

Held:  Despite he authority of Reed and another; R v Garmson[2009] a DNA profile could still be reliable, even if the amount of DNA in that profile was below 200 picograms, provided the necessary reproducibility had been demonstrated.

(Intoloculatory appear – trial to continue)

Jurors risk trials by tweeting

Saturday 20 November 2010 at 8:02 am | In News | Post Comment Lord Judge, the lord chief justice has again warned about internet use by jurors, this week,

“We cannot stop people tweeting, but if jurors look at such material, the risks to the fairness of the trial will be very serious,” he said.

In a speech to the Judicial Studies Board in Belfast, he said: “We welcome advances in technology, provided that we are its masters and it is our tool and servant.”

Lord Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, has suggested to the newspapers that judges were “giving up” trying to stop juries using Google, Facebook and Twitter to access information about defendants.

Macdonald, said,

“I don’t think juries should be ‘allowed’ to do online research. But I do think we need to assume this will occasionally happen and that it should not invalidate a trial.”

Tape recorders are banned under the Contempt of Court Act, it is likely that Twitter will also be banned, and he judges warnings to jurors about discussing their trial outside the jury room should be extended to the internet.

Looking up cases on the internet by jurors might constitute contempt of court, punishable by two-years imprisonment.

Lord Judge also warned that schools were failing to train children to “sit still and listen for prolonged periods”, an essential skill for jurors.

Parents of truants convicted – 8,000

Friday 19 November 2010 at 7:33 am | In News | Post Comment The Press Association has obtained figures from the Ministry of Justice which show that more than 10,600 people were prosecuted with over 8,000 convicted in 2009 because of their child’s truancy.

This is the equivalent of 56 parents facing criminal proceedings every day of the school year.

Some 14 were sent to jail facing an average sentence of around one month.

The threat of prosecution and the possibility of a jail term were part of new truancy sanctions introduced under the last Government.

Since the measures were introduced, the numbers facing prosecution have rocketed. In 2001, it is thought that around 1,900 people were prosecuted with around 1,500 convicted.

Mercy killing is murder – first case before Court of Appeal

Saturday 13 November 2010 at 2:05 pm | In News | Post Comment

R v Inglis [2010] CA
The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, in the first case of murder involving a mercy killing before it, heard that D injected her son with a fatal dose of heroin where he had suffered catastrophic brain damage after falling from an ambulance. There was no evidence that when the defendant injected the fatal dose of heroin into her son she had lost her self-control.

Held: The law of murder did not distinguish between murder committed for malevolent reasons and murder motivated by familial love. Subject to well established partial defences, like provocation or diminished responsibility, mercy killing was murder.

Guilty of murder:  The appeal against sentence was allowed to the extent that the minimum term of nine years was reduced to five years.

Per curiam: The court cannot decide the case on the basis of whichever of the contradictory strands of public opinion in this extremely sensitive area happens to coincide with our own views, assuming that is, that if we had allowed our personal feelings to impinge on our discussions, that there would be any coincidence of views. How the problems of mercy killing, euthanasia, and assisting suicide should be addressed must be decided by Parliament, which, for this purpose at any rate, should be reflective of the conscience of the nation. In this appeal we are constrained to apply the law as we find it to be. The court cannot amend it, or ignore it (see [39] of the judgment).

Rape defendants not to be anonymous

Saturday 13 November 2010 at 1:08 pm | In News | 1 Comment

Rape defendants will not have their identity protected despite a government promise in May. It appears that there is not enough evidence to support a change in law.

Justice Minister Crispin Blunt said
“The coalition government made it clear from the outset that it would proceed with defendant anonymity in rape cases only if the evidence justifying it was clear and sound.”

Women’s groups say anonymity would deter victims of rape from coming forward and it would send a message to juries that the victim should not be believed.

Yvette Cooper, the Labour Party women’s minister, welcomed the decision and said the government should never have promised it.

The Sexual Offences Act 1976 allowed anonymity for rape defendants. In 1988 the act was repealed so that all defendants were treated the same.

Three in four convicts remain criminals

Sunday 7 November 2010 at 8:51 am | In News | 1 Comment Three in four convicted criminals never give up a life of crime regardless of whether or not they are jailed or agree to community penalties.

Ministry of Justice figures released this week show that 74 per cent of those convicted go on to commit a further crime within 10 years – at the very most. And 61% of prisoners are re-convicted within a year of release.

Last year alone, convicts being monitored by the probation service went on to commit almost 600 serious further offences, including murder, rape and grievous bodily harm.

Community orders are not significantly more effective than short term prison sentences and that, over time, most offenders returned to crime regardless of what punishment they are given.

The report contains the most detail on re-offending ever produced and discloses that from 14 prisons, seven in ten inmates re-offend within a year of release (9 years for other prisons).

Re-offending statistics are normally only based on the first year after punishment.
This report is based on a study of offenders released from custody (or who started a community penalty) and re-convicted within nine years. It is based on the period between January and March 2000.

The conclusion is that the majority of offenders are never rehabilitated.  The justice system is failing to deter criminals who remain active for many years and sentences are clearly not working to rehabilitate when most convicts go back to crime regardless of how many prior sentences they have served.

At Dorchester prison, around 75 per cent of those inmates went on to re-offend as did almost 77 per cent of women at New Hall prison in Wakefield.

Crispin Blunt, the Justice Minister, said: “Prison remains the right place for the most serious, dangerous and persistent offenders.”

Justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke will reduce prison populations by introducing legislation whereby criminals with serious mental illnesses or drug addictions will not be sent to prison but offered “voluntary” treatment in hospital. They will be diverted from jail to secure NHS units, but will be free to walk away. Officials define “secure” as having a grip on the individual, rather than locking them up.

Jury trial is above issues of budget

Saturday 6 November 2010 at 9:01 pm | In News | Post Comment The independent Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses Louise Casey, called for the end of jury trials for minor crimes stating that such trials took up valuable court time and money which would be better used elsewhere.

Subsequently, The Law Society warned that any conviction for dishonesty could have a very severe effect on a person’s employment potential, their ability to travel freely and their insurance costs, and stressed that they should have the right to a trial by jury before facing such weighty consequences.

The chairman of the Law Society, Desmond Hutton, stated that such values were above the issue of accounting and budgets.

Casey called for:

* an end to the right to trial by jury for defendants in petty crime cases which clog up the court system;
* the prevention of late guilty pleas which allow criminals to string out their cases at the expense of the public.

In her report “Ending the Justice Waiting Game: a plea for common sense”, Ms Casey argues that victims are the “poor relation” in the criminal justice system, noting that less than 2 per cent of the cost of the criminal justice system was spent on victims.

The report is here:

Legal Services Commission will not appeal Law Society case

Wednesday 27 October 2010 at 5:04 pm | In News | Post Comment

LSC Press release issued today:

27 October 2010

After careful consideration, the Legal Services Commission has decided not to appeal against the judgment made on the Law Society’s judicial review of our tender process.

The priority is to focus on the delivery of future public services; any appeal would only prolong the uncertainty over the future of family legal aid contracts, causing difficulties for clients and providers alike.

[…]

LSC Chair Sir Bill Callaghan said,

“Our priority must always be to ensure family legal aid clients get the help and legal advice they need. We still have some work to do but we hope that this constructive engagement with the profession will help to provide certainty for clients and providers.”

Bayes theorem has limited role in the courts

Wednesday 27 October 2010 at 10:25 am | In News | Post Comment

R v T CA (2010)

D was tried for murder. Expert evidence based upon the use of likelihood ratios was admitted in evidence. The evidence centred around a pair of Nike trainers that were unlikely to have made the marks at the scene, the expert calculated that wear, or a dislodged stone etc could have changed the mark.

Held: In the area of footwear evidence, there is no place for use of a formula to calculate probability. That practice had no sound basis and outside the field of DNA, Bayes theorem and likelihood ratios should not be used.

Not Guilty (retrial ordered)
Per curiam: It is highly unlikely that the process by which expert evidence was formulated and adduced in this case will ever be repeated. […] There is no need for any new process. […]
Comment: The Court of Appeal has somewhat unusually permitted the publication of a redacted judgment, because of the importance of the judgment

Government abolishes quango that does not exist

Sunday 17 October 2010 at 8:38 am | In News | Post Comment On 14 October, the government announced that around 200 quangos were to cease.  Some were merged some retained and some abolished with some or all functions transferred to civil service, local government, other quango, expert committee, charity or private sector.

However, in the list is of quangos to be abolished is the Legal Services Ombudsman who does not exist, its function was replaced by the Legal Ombudsman on 6 October.

So, for the sake of clarity, the Legal Ombudsman is alive and well, The Legal Services Ombudsman is no longer.