English Legal System

Question 1

C V DPP

Answer 1

• Motorcycle
• A boy of 13 was convicted in the magistrates court of theft
• Until this case it had been accepted that such a child could only be convicted if the prosecution proved that the child knew he was doing wrong
• The divisional court held that children were more mature, times had chnaged and the rule was no longer needed
• The case was further appealed to HoL who overruled the divisional court.

Question 2

Stephen Lawrence

Answer 2

• DNA match
• 2 D who had been previously acquitted of the murder of black teenager, SL, were retired and convicted using the double jeopardy rules, 19 years after the murder.
• Part of the new evidence was a DNA match with SL blood found on the clothing of one of them.
• This evidence became available due to new DNA testing techniques.

Question 3

Michael Weir

Answer 3

• Guilty of same murder twice
• Michaek Weir was jailed for life for the murders of two prisoners. He was convicted 20 years after the killing in a unique double jeopardy case.
  His OG murder conviction was dismissed on appeal on a technicality when prosecuters were late filing legal papers
  - Despite DNA evidence from a glove found at the scene linking him to the attack.
• By 2018 new evidence was found linking him to both murders

Question 4

Hanif V UK

Answer 4

• Police officer juror
• The ECHR ruled tat having a policeofficer on the jurywas a breach of Article 6(1) pf the ECHR - the right to a fair trial
• The police officer juror had immediately alerted the court to the fact that he knew one of the prosecution police witnesses. It was particulary important as the evidence of this witness was crucial to the case against the D
• The trial judge ruled this did not matter
• The case continued with the police officer juror being the foreman of the jury and the D was convicted
• The court of appeal upheld the conviction

Question 5

R v kronlid

Answer 5

• Indonesia
• 3 protestors were charged with causing criminal damage of £1.5 million to a Hawk jet plane that had been bought by the indonesian gov and was due to be sent there.
• the D confessed that they had done damage, but claimed they had lawful reasons
• Claimed the jet was going to be used agaisnt the civillian population in East Timor as part of an alleged genocidal campaign.
• The jury sympathised with D’s views and found them not guilty

Question 6

R v Randle and Pottle

Answer 6

• Spy
• Charged with helping a spy escape prison
• their prosecution did not take place until 25 years after the escape, when they wrote about what they had done
• They were acquitted as the jury possibly decided it was unfair to convict with such a time lapse between the offence and the prosecution

Question 7

R v young

Answer 7

• Ouija board
• D was charged with the murder of 2 people
• Jury had to stay at a hotel overnight due to not reaching a verdict.
• 4 juror members held a seance using a ouija board to contact the dead victim and ask who killed them.
• The next day the jury returned a guilty verdict
• When the use ofthe ouija board became known, the court of appeal quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial.

Question 8

R v Karakaya

Answer 8

• The D was accused of rape
• A juror carried out an internet search at home and brought into the jury room the printed out results of the search
• The jury convicted karakaya but this conviction was quashed due to the outside information the jury had access to during their deliberations
• A retrial was ordered and karakaya was acquitted by the jury in the second trial

Question 9

R v West

Answer 9

• Media coverage
• Rosemary West was convicted for the murders of 10 young girls and women, including her own daughter
• Media coverage was intense
• RW appealed on the grounds that the media coverage had made it impossible for her to receive a fair trial.
• Court of appeal rejected the appeal, pointing out that otherwise it would mean that if ‘allegations of murder were sufficiently horrendous so as to inevitably shock the nation, the accused could not be tried’
• The trial judge had also given a warning to only consider the evidence presented in court.

Question 10

R v Taylor and Taylor

Answer 10

• 2 sisters were charged with murder. Some newspapers published a still from a video sequence that gave a false impression of what was happening
• After the jury convicted the 2 D, an appeal was made on the grounds of the possible influence this picture could have had on the jury’s verdict; the court of appeal quashed the convictions