Part I Appeal to Court of Appeal in Criminal Cases
Appeal against conviction on indictment
C1C3C41 Right of appeal.
1
F1Subject to subsection (3) below a person convicted of an offence on indictment may appeal to the Court of Appeal against his conviction.
F22
An appeal under this section lies only—
a
with the leave of the Court of Appeal; or
b
ifF11, within 28 days from the date of the conviction, the judge of the court of trial grants a certificate that the case is fit for appeal.
F33
Where a person is convicted before the Crown Court of a scheduled offence it shall not be open to him to appeal to the Court of Appeal against the conviction on the ground that the decision of the court which F20sent him to the Crown Court for trial as to the value involved was mistaken.
4
In subsection (3) above “scheduled offence” and “the value involved” have the same meanings as they have in section 22 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 (certain offences against property to be tried summarily if value of property or damage is small).
2 Grounds for allowing appeal under s. 1.
C2F41
Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Court of Appeal—
a
shall allow an appeal against conviction if they think that the conviction is unsafe; and
b
shall dismiss such an appeal in any other case.
2
In the case of an appeal against conviction the Court shall, if they allow the appeal, quash the conviction.
3
An order of the Court of Appeal quashing a conviction shall, except when under section 7 below the appellant is ordered to be retried, operate as a direction to the court of trial to enter, instead of the record of conviction, a judgment and verdict of acquittal.
3 Power to substitute conviction of alternative offence.
1
This section applies on an appeal against conviction, where the appellant has been convicted of an offence F7to which he did not plead guilty and the jury could on the indictment have found him guilty of some other offence, and on the finding of the jury it appears to the Court of Appeal that the jury must have been satisfied of facts which proved him guilty of the other offence.
2
The Court may, instead of allowing or dismissing the appeal, substitute for the verdict found by the jury a verdict of guilty of the other offence, and pass such sentence in substitution for the sentence passed at the trial as may be authorised by law for the other offence, not being a sentence of greater severity.
3AF8Power to substitute conviction of alternative offence after guilty plea
1
This section applies on an appeal against conviction where—
a
an appellant has been convicted of an offence to which he pleaded guilty,
b
if he had not so pleaded, he could on the indictment have pleaded, or been found, guilty of some other offence, and
c
it appears to the Court of Appeal that the plea of guilty indicates an admission by the appellant of facts which prove him guilty of the other offence.
2
The Court of Appeal may, instead of allowing or dismissing the appeal, substitute for the appellant’s plea of guilty a plea of guilty of the other offence and pass such sentence in substitution for the sentence passed at the trial as may be authorised by law for the other offence, not being a sentence of greater severity.
4F10Power to re-sentence where appellant remains convicted of related offences.
F121
This section applies where—
a
two or more related sentences are passed,
b
the Court of Appeal allow an appeal against conviction in respect of one or more of the offences for which the sentences were passed (“the related offences”), but
c
the appellant remains convicted of one or more of those offences.
2
3
The Court shall not under this section pass any sentence such that the appellant’s sentence F15(taken as a whole) for all the related offences of which he remains convicted will, in consequence of the appeal, be of greater severity than the sentence (taken as a whole) which was passed at the trial F16for all the related offences.
F174
For the purposes of subsection (1)(a), two or more sentences are related if—
a
they are passed on the same day,
b
they are passed on different days but the court in passing any one of them states that it is treating that one together with the other or others as substantially one sentence, or
c
they are passed on different days but in respect of counts on the same indictment.
5
Where—
a
two or more sentences are related to each other by virtue of subsection (4)(a) or (b), and
b
any one or more of those sentences is related to one or more other sentences by virtue of subsection (4)(c),
all the sentences are to be treated as related for the purposes of subsection (1)(a).
5 Disposal of appeal against conviction on special verdict.
1
This section applies on an appeal against conviction F5in a case where the jury have found a special verdict.
2
If the Court of Appeal consider that a wrong conclusion has been arrived at by the court of trial on the effect of the jury’s verdict they may, instead of allowing the appeal, order such conclusion to be recorded as appears to them to be in law required by the verdict, and pass such sentence in substitution for the sentence passed at the trial as may be authorised by law.
F66 Substitution of finding of insanity or findings of unfitness to plead etc.
1
This section applies where, on an appeal against conviction, the Court of Appeal, on the written or oral evidence of two or more registered medical practitioners at least one of whom is duly approved, are of opinion—
a
that the proper verdict would have been one of not guilty by reason of insanity; or
b
that the case is not one where there should have been a verdict of acquittal, but there should have been findings that the accused was under a disability and that he did the act or made the omission charged against him.
F92
The Court of Appeal shall make in respect of the accused—
a
a hospital order (with or without a restriction order);
b
a supervision order; or
c
an order for his absolute discharge.
3
Where—
a
the offence to which the appeal relates is an offence the sentence for which is fixed by law, and
b
the court have power to make a hospital order,
the court shall make a hospital order with a restriction order (whether or not they would have power to make a restriction order apart from this subsection).
4
Section 5A of the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964 (“the 1964 Act”) applies in relation to this section as it applies in relation to section 5 of that Act.
F185
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6
Where the Court of Appeal make a supervision order by virtue of this section, any power of revoking or amending it shall be exercisable as if the order had been made by the court below.
7
In this section—
“hospital order” has the meaning given in section 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983;
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“restriction order” has the meaning given to it by section 41 of that Act;
“supervision order” has the meaning given in Part 1 of Schedule 1A to the 1964 Act.