Lord Woolf discussed the role of the coroner acting as a filter to avoid injustice: ‘In a difficult case, the Coroner is carrying out an evaluation exercise. He is looking at the evidence before him as a whole and saying to himself, without deciding matters which are the province of the jury, ‘Is this a case where it would be safe for the jury to come to the conclusion that there had been an unlawful killing?’ If he reaches the conclusion that, because the evidence is so inherently weak, vague or inconsistent with other evidence, it would not be safe for a jury to come to the verdict, then he has to withdraw the issue from the jury.’
Judges:
Lord Woolf
Citations:
Unreported, 10 December 1997
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Sharman, Regina (on the Application of) v HM Coroner for Inner North London Admn 12-May-2005
A caller reported to the police that a man had left a public house with a gun in a plastic bag. He was confronted by armed police and shot. It had in fact been a stick of wood. The officers appealed a finding of unlawful killing.
Held: The . .
Cited – Bennett, Regina (on the Application of) v HM Coroner for Inner South London and others CA 26-Jun-2007
The deceased had been shot by the police, who mistakenly believed him to be armed. Judicial review was sought saying that the coroner had wrongly refused to leave to the jury the possible verdict of unlawful killing.
Held: The appeal was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Coroners
Updated: 09 July 2022; Ref: scu.258849