The four defendants were to stand trial for murder, the trial being expected to last ten weeks. The jury was selected to allow for this, but when the trial was set to overrun, it had to be adjourned mid-retirement for three weeks and then again to allow some jury members to take pre-booked holidays. The court refused the defendants’ requests for a new trial.
Held: The appeals failed. There is no rule which generally precludes such arrangements as unfair. It was a question fact for each case. The judge had taken particular care on directions for the jury after the resumptions.
Judges:
Simon LJ, Jay J, Judge Picton
Citations:
[2019] EWCA Crim 1002, [2019] WLR(D) 336
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Regina v Kellard, Dwyer, Wright CACD 5-Aug-1994
Appeal on a multiplicity of issues from convictions recorded in the course of a trial which lasted about a year.
Held: In large fraud trials, the prosecution should consider severance of the indictment to shorten the length of individual . .
Cited – A and others v Regina CACD 25-Oct-2007
Defendants appealed after 4 month long trial: ‘so lengthy and disrupted was the hearing and so inadequate the summing up that the trial was unfair and their convictions unsafe.’ . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Practice
Updated: 27 October 2022; Ref: scu.639268