Double Jeopardy Essay

“The plea of autrefois acquit and autrefois convict … is grounded on this universal maxim of the common law of England, that no man is to be brought into jeopardy of his life, more than once, for the same offence."1
Despite the plea of double jeopardy having been consolidated in history, it was put into light by the Stephen Lawrence Enquiry which later resulted to the drafting and implementation of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 allowing for reform on double jeopardy through the protection for wrongly acquitted criminals. The amendments provided in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, allowing for the alteration of the legal principle of double jeopardy in
England and Wales would respectively allow for; ‘consideration to be given to permit prosecution
4 The Modern Law Review (2002) Vol 65, 3. PAUL COMMENTARY
5 Law Comm’n, Double Jeopardy and Prosecution Appeals, 2001, Cm. 5048 at 6
6 Id. 1.18.
7 Home Department. Justice For All, 2002, Cm. 5563. 75 - 84
8 The Auld Report, October 2001, Ch 12. 2 examination of the Criminal Justice and Sentencing Bill in October 2002.
This resulted in the implementation of the governments proposals in White
Paper: Justice For All, determining the goal 9 of the reform as the
"rebalancing [of] the criminal justice system in favour of the victim.”10 The government sought to "remove the double jeopardy rule for serious cases,"11 intentionally broadening the scope of the exception beyond the recommendations of the Law Commission.
The Criminal Justice Act allows the Court of Appeal, under Part 10, to quash an acquittal on the basis of evidence that is both “new” and “highly probative”12The relaxation of the double jeopardy rule was to undergo reform through the amendment to list of qualifying offences and amendments to definition of new evidence. The UK provisions have resulted in one conviction as seen by R. v. Dunlop13 where a murder was acquitted following two trials and then admitted to the murder.
Unfortunate for guilty defendants, the relaxation of the double jeopardy rule in England and Wales has successfully led to the prosecution applying to the Supreme Court for an order quashing an acquittal in
14 Double Jeopardy, 2009. SN/HA/1082
15Paul Roberts, Justice for All? Two Bad Arguments (And Several Good Suggestions) for
Resisting Double Jeopardy Reform, 6 INT'L J. EVIDENCE & PROOF 197, 198 (2002) 4 circumstances where, as with an application by the defence to the Court of
Criminal Appeal, it is alleged “that a new or newly discovered fact shows that there has been a miscarriage of justice”. False 16 acquittals had placed a strain upon the integrity of the justice system and the Parliaments decision to sweep away centuries of common law consensus through enacting the Criminal Justice Act and has accordingly challenged the conventional wisdom that autrefois principles provide a “bulwark against state oppression, instead portraying them as archaic protections for wrongly acquitted criminals”.17
16 Section 2(1)(b) of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993.
17 Notre Dame Law Review, Double Take: Evaluating Double Jeopardy Reform, Vol 85. Issue 2.