Series 2 Episode 10 - When the Prosecution Appeal - Unduly Lenient Sentences and Points of Law
(00:39:06)
Content warning. This episode contains details (relevant to the legal issues being considered) of a case concerning the murder of a young woman in terrible circumstances which may cause distress to listeners.
In this episode we go further into prosecution appeals, and in particular when the prosecution are entitled to appeal against a sentence or a legal ruling.
In the vast majority of cases, once you have been sentenced, the prosecution are not entitled to appeal against that sentence, except where the sentence is within a relatively small category of offences which can be overturned by the Court of Appeal as being ‘unduly lenient’. In this episode we look at how this process really works.
And there are also situations where the prosecution can, following an acquittal, seek to clarify a point of law by appealing to the Court of Appeal (an Attorney-General’s reference), but whatever the outcome, it will not affect the defendant’s not guilty verdict.
Contrast this with the situation where the prosecution can seek to appeal against what is commonly known as a ‘terminating ruling’ by a Crown Court Judge (i.e. a legal ruling which usually has the effect of bringing the case to an end, such as the judge agreeing with a defence submission of no case to answer) where the Court of Appeal can set that ruling aside (sometimes very quickly) and the defendant, instead of believing that his or her case was at an end, must now see the trial through to its logical conclusion and await the jury’s verdict.
Thanks for listening.
NOTES
Throughout this podcast I have referred to legislation, cases and to further information and reading. Becoming a member of Defence-Barrister.co.uk gives you access to information on what is covered in this podcast, as well as detailed guides and information on trials, sentencing and appeals. https://www.defence-barrister.co.uk/subscribe
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