Punch cartoon - Court of Criminal Appeal

The Court of Criminal Appeal was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

appellate court An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appel ...

for criminal cases established by the ( 7 Edw. 7. c. 23). It superseded the

Court for Crown Cases Reserved The Court for Crown Cases Reserved or Court for Criminal Cases Reserved was an appellate court established in 1848 for criminal cases in England and Wales to hear references from the trial judge. It did not allow a retrial, only judgment on ...

to which referral had been solely discretionary and which could only consider points of law. Throughout the nineteenth century, there had been opposition from

lawyers A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as wel ...

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

s and the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

against such an appeal court with collateral right of appeal. However, disquiet over the convictions of

Adolf Beck The Adolf Beck case was a notorious incident of wrongful conviction by mistaken identity, brought about by unreliable methods of identification, erroneous eyewitness testimony, and a rush to convict the accused. As one of the best known cause ...

and

George Edalji George Ernest Thompson Edalji (22 January 1876 – 17 June 1953) was an English solicitor and son of a vicar of Indian Parsi descent in a Staffordshire village. He became known as a victim of a miscarriage of justice, having served three year ...

led to the concession of a new court that could hear matters of law, fact or mixed law and fact. Though the court was staffed with the judges who had shown such hostility (consisting of the Lord Chief Justice and eight judges of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court), it had a restraining effect on the excesses of prosecutors. During the period 1909–1912, there was an average of 450 annual applications for leave to appeal of which an average of 170 were granted. Of that 170, conviction was quashed in 20 percent of cases and sentence varied in another 22 per cent. Rulings of the court included limitation of the lower courts' ability simultaneously to try multiple defendants, multiple

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an ind ...

s and disparate counts within an indictment. The ability of the prosecution to introduce further evidence after the close of the prosecution case was curtailed as were several prejudicial practices with a defendant's previous

criminal record A criminal record (not to be confused with a police record or arrest record) is a record of a person's criminal Conviction, convictions history. The information included in a criminal record, and the existence of a criminal record, varies betwe ...

. Further, trial judges' ability to invade the jury's role as

trier of fact In law, a trier of fact or finder of fact is a person or group who determines disputed issues of fact in a legal proceeding (usually a trial) and how relevant they are to deciding its outcome. To determine a fact is to decide, from the evide ...

came under scrutiny, as did the practice of insisting that the defence proceed even in the case of an inadequate ''prima facie'' case by the prosecution. The Court also did much to refine and systematise the

law of evidence The law of evidence, also known as the rules of evidence, encompasses the rules and legal principles that govern the proof of facts in a legal proceeding. These rules determine what evidence must or must not be considered by the trier of fa ...

. On 1 October 1966, the Court of Criminal Appeal was superseded by the Criminal Division of the

Court of Appeal of England and Wales The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and second in the legal system of England and Wales only to ...

.Lord Mackay of Clashfern (ed.) (2002) ''Halsbury's Laws of England'', 4th ed. Vol.10 (Reissue), "Courts", 634 'Divisions of the Court of Appeal'

References

Bibliography

*{{cite book , author1=Cornish, W. , author2=Clarke, G. , title=Law and Society in England 1750-1950 , location=London , publisher=Sweet & Maxwell , year=1989 , isbn=978-0-421-31150-3 , pages=619–623 , ref=cornishclarke *Davies, S. (1949) ''Journal of the Society of Public Teachers of Law'' (new series) 425

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Former courts and tribunals in England and Wales Criminal law of the United Kingdom Legal history of England 1907 establishments in the United Kingdom 1966 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Courts and tribunals established in 1907 Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1966