Should old cases be judged on new common law? Laurie Toczek reports
On 13 February 2007, an interview with Professor Graham Zellick, the Chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), appeared in the Times. Professor Zellick referred to the recent case of R (Director of Revenue and Customs Prosecutions) v Criminal Cases Review Commission [2006] EWCA 3064 (Admin), [2006] All ER (D) 48 (Dec). One of the questions raised by this case is whether old cases should be judged on ‘new’ common law, as it now is, or as it was when the conviction occurred.
The most famous case in which this issue arose is R v Bentley [1998] EWCA Crim 2516, [1999] Crim LR 330. On the evening of 2 November 1952, Derek Bentley and Christopher Craig climbed onto the roof of a warehouse in Croydon intending to commit a burglary. They were seen and the police were called. One of the officers who attended the scene, PC Sidney Miles, was shot and killed by Craig. Craig was charged with murder. Bentley
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