(Dominica) The appellants appealed convictions for together having kicked a man to death. They said the convictions were founded on unreliable identification evidence.
Held: The judge had made several misdirections, as to the reliability of hearsay evidence, the possible explanations for false alibis, and the risk of fallibiliity of identification evidence even where the person identified was known to the witness. The Board felt unable to apply the proviso, and given the age of the matter a retrial was inappropriate. The convictions were quashed.
Judges:
Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Hutton, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Carswell
Citations:
[2005] UKPC 20
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Regina v Turnbull and Another etc CCA 9-Jun-1976
The defendants appealed against their convictions which had been based upon evidence of visual identification.
Held: Identification evidence can be unreliable, and courts must take steps to reduce injustice. The judge should warn the jury of . .
Cited – Regina v Bentley CACD 1991
Where an identification depends upon the recognition by the witness of a person or persons previously known to him, the jury should be reminded that there is remains a risk for mistake in such cases. Many people have experienced thinking that they . .
Cited – Aurelio Pop v The Queen PC 22-May-2003
PC (Belize) A witness identified the accused only making the link between the man he knew as R and the accused as the result of an improper leading question by prosecuting counsel. There had been no . .
Cited – Fuller v State 1995
(Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago) The court gave guidance on the need to give proper directions on identification evidence to accord with Turnbull: ‘We are concerned about the repeated failures of trial judges to instruct juries properly on . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 12 April 2022; Ref: scu.224876