(1)A confirming officer may direct that a court-martial shall revise any finding of guilty come to by the court in any case where it appears to him—
(a)that the finding was against the weight of evidence, or
(b)that some question of law determined at the trial and relevant to the finding was wrongly determined.
(2)Any such direction shall be accompanied by the necessary directions for the re-assembly of the court, and shall contain a statement of the reasons for the direction.
(3)On any revision of a finding the court shall reconsider the finding, and (unless the court adheres thereto) may substitute therefor either a finding of not guilty or any other finding to which the court could originally have come at the trial in lieu of the finding under revision.
(4)On any such revision the court shall not have power to receive further evidence.
(5)Where on any such revision the court either adheres to the original finding or substitutes therefor a finding of guilty of another offence, or of the same offence in different circumstances, the court may substitute a different sentence for the original sentence:
Provided that the court shall not have power to substitute a sentence of a punishment greater than the punishment or greatest of the punishments awarded by the original sentence, or to substitute a sentence which in the opinion of the court is more severe than the original sentence.
[F1(5A)The power conferred by subsection (5) above (as limited by the proviso to that subsection) shall also be exercisable by a court-martial notwithstanding that it substitutes a finding of not guilty for the finding, or each of the findings, to which a direction under this section relates if the original findings of the court included one or more findings of guilty to which the direction does not relate.]
(6)The confirming officer shall not have power to direct the revision of any substituted finding come to by the court on a previous direction of the confirming officer, or the revision of the original finding if adhered to by the court on such a previous direction; but save as aforesaid this Act shall apply to the proceedings of the court on any such revision as it applies to their deliberations on the original finding or sentence, and any substituted finding or sentence shall be treated for all purposes as an original finding or sentence of the court:
Provided that the decision of the court on the revision shall not be required to be announced in open court.
Textual Amendments
F1S. 109(5A) inserted by Armed Forces Act 1971 (c. 33), s. 50(1)
Textual Amendments applied to the whole legislation
F2Act: the provisions of the 1955 Acts providing for findings of courts-martial to be subject to confirmation and to revision at the direction of the confirming officer cease to have effect (1.4.1997 subject to art. 3 of the commencing S.I.) by virtue of 1996 c. 46, s. 15; S.I. 1997/304, arts. 2, 3, Sch. 2