Criminal

In this week’s NLJ, David Walbank KC, Red Lion Chambers, discusses the potential for retrial in the case of Lucy Letby. Letby is back in the news amid doubts over the evidence used to convict the former Countess of Chester Hospital nurse. But, given the storm of media analysis, and the ‘deluge of analysis, comment and speculation that continues to engulf social media’, could a reassessment be carried out fairly?

The assisted dying bill, as currently drafted, risks criminalising compassionate actions and leaves too much to prosecutorial discretion, Edward Hodgson, associate, and Andrew Smith, partner, Corker Binning, argue in this week’s NLJ

Can a retrial be fair when a conviction has been at the centre of a media storm? David Walbank KC considers the Lucy Letby case

The UK and US sanctions regime against Russia have notable differences, and President Trump has indicated he may lift certain sanctions. In this week’s NLJ, James Clark, partner, Ian Hargreaves, partner, and James Philippsohn, associate, of Quillon Law, discuss the sanctions landscape and how it applies to businesses and individuals

Former criminal defence barrister, Solicitor General, MP and Victim’s Commissioner Dame Vera Baird KC has been appointed interim chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC)

Jon Robins backs the calls of both Baroness Butler-Sloss & the Justice Committee for the watchdog’s leadership to resign

The astonishing failures at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) have had a devastating impact on those it was set up to protect. The question now is what should be done? NLJ columnist Jon Robins highlights a radical suggestion by Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss in a House of Lords debate on the subject this month

Dr Ping-fat Sze is perplexed by the treatment of irrational prosecutorial decisions

The Supreme Court recently re-examined the dual criminality rule ‘in a judgment that is reckoned to have caused consternation within the US Department of Justice’, David Walbank KC, Red Lion Chambers, writes in this week’s NLJ

In two places at once? David Walbank KC considers requests for extradition & the double criminality rule