Criminal Evidence

R v Miell [2007] EWCA Crim 3130, [2007] All ER (D) 366 (Dec)

The defendant was acquitted of murder. He later confessed to the murder. He subsequently pleaded guilty to perjury arising out of untruthful evidence he gave at the murder trial. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) sought to have the acquittal for murder quashed, and a retrial ordered, under s 76 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (CJA 2003).

HELD CJA 2003, s 78 requires the court to form its own view of whether or not the defendant’s conviction for perjury was compelling, reliable and highly probative evidence that he was guilty of the original murder. On the facts, that court concluded that it was not. Lord Phillips CJ added that it would have been contrary to the interests of justice to order the defendant to stand trial again given that s 74 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 would, on the facts of the case, effectively shift the burden of proof onto the defendant at any retrial.