Part of Criminal Justice Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 3:00 pm ar 21 Ionawr 2003.
Dominic Grieve
Shadow Minister (Home Affairs)
3:00,
21 Ionawr 2003
I beg to move Amendment No. 314, in
Clause 66, page 40, line 39, at end insert—
'(e) the potential impact of any publicity concerning the original proceedings'.
This is a rather more fundamental amendment. Should we spell out explicitly the concerns of Parliament—already expressed on all sides—about the potential impact of publicity on the ability to have a fair retrial? One would expect the clause to deal with that as part of the general submissions that the Court of Appeal has to examine. It is a crucial issue because a major problem with re-litigation of a criminal case is that much publicity will already have been generated. It is particularly problematic when the retrial is taking place not 20 or 25 years later, but only six or eight months after the event.
New evidence might well come to light in a serious case when an acquittal was followed by a huge amount of press comment about the original proceedings. The prosecution might have said that the evidence was so reliable and substantial as to make it highly probable that the person was guilty—or whatever it reads after the Minister has redrafted clause 65—and the public will have been very much alive to the case and to the publicity surrounding it. I am not asking for a prohibition on a retrial, but it should be built into the Bill that the new evidence is serious enough to merit independent consideration by the Court of Appeal.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
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A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
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