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The Court of Appeal –
Criminal Division
The main appellate court in criminal matters is the Court of
Appeal – Criminal Division, which hears appeals from the
Crown Court. An appeal may be against conviction, or sentence,
or both. A person has an unrestricted right of appeal against
conviction on a question of law, but the agreement of the Court
of Appeal is necessary to an appeal against sentence. Where
a sentence is fixed by law, for example life imprisonment for
murder, there can be no appeal against sentence as such.
If the Court of Appeal refuses leave to appeal against sentence,
a defendant may petition the Home Secretary, and if his petition
is successful, the Home Secretary will refer the matter to the
Court of Appeal for determination.
The Court of Appeal may, depending on the circumstances, dismiss
an appeal, allow it, or reduce the sentence, but it may not
increase the sentence. In some cases it has power to order a
new trial.
It is possible for a person to appeal against a finding of insanity
or unfitness to pleas by a lower court. Where a person charged
with a crime would, were he sane, have been found guilty and
sentenced, he is, if insane, found ‘not guilty on the
grounds of insanity’. This is of course an acquittal,
and rightly so, as a person cannot be held responsible if he
did not know the nature of his acts, and therefore did not know
that they were wrong. But in such a case the usual order of
the court is that the defendant be confined in a mental hospital.
He thus loses his freedom, and it is therefore only equitable
that he be allowed to appeal. In order to regain his freedom
he would of course have to satisfy the court both that he was
sane, and given that, that he was not guilty of the crime with
which he had been charged.
Most of the work of the Court of appeal – Criminal Division
is done in London, but it also sits in some of the larger provincial
cities.
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