Simmons and Another v Regina: PC 3 Apr 2006

(Bahamas) The appellants challenged admission of confession statements at their trial. A statement was not to be admitted without proof hat it had not been obtained by oppression.
Held: The defendant would have failed in a submission of no case to answer even without the confessions, and ‘even had the Mushtaq direction been given and the jury disregarded the statement, they must inevitably still have convicted him. ‘. The statement though in effect culpatory had been intended to be exculpatory.

Judges:

Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Woolf, Lord Hope of Craighead, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood

Citations:

[2006] UKPC 19

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

Commonwealth

Citing:

CitedAttorney-General of Trinidad and Tobago v Whiteman PC 17-Apr-1991
(Trinidad and Tobago) The time at which an arrested or detained person is to be informed of his/her right to consult with a legal adviser of choice is at a stage before the commencement of ‘in-custody interrogations’.
Lord Keith, in delivering . .
CitedMohammed (Allie) v The State PC 9-Dec-1998
(Trinidad and Tobago) A failure to inform a suspect before interview of his right to see a lawyer did not make the interview inadmissible despite the constitutional infringement. It was not as serious as a failure to give fair trial. The judge’s . .
CitedRegina v Hayter HL 3-Feb-2005
The House considered the principle that the confession of a defendant is inadmissible in a joint criminal case against a co-defendant. In a trial for murder, one party was accused of requesting a middleman to arrange for the murder by a third party. . .
CitedGilbert v Regina PC 27-Mar-2006
(Grenada) . .
CitedBowe (Junior) and Another v The Queen PC 8-Mar-2006
(Bahamas) The Board considered: ‘(a) the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal (b) the constitutional history in the Bahamas as it differs from that of other Caribbean states and (c) the constitutionality of the executive act of carrying out a . .
CitedTeeluck and John v The State PC 23-Mar-2005
(Trinidad and Tobago) The defendant appealed against his conviction saying that his defence had been incompetent in having failed to require the judge to give a good character direction to the jury.
Held: The appeal was allowed. Recent cases . .
CitedBowe v The State PC 30-Jan-2006
Constitutional validity of the death sentence in the Bahamas. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Commonwealth, Criminal Practice, Constitutional

Updated: 06 July 2022; Ref: scu.240023