"Aaron Connolly, who has spent over three years serving a life sentence for the murder of teenager Cameron Reilly, has had his conviction quashed after the Court of Appeal found that the trial judge's instructions to the jury lacked balance and in parts may have been seen as "advocacy" for the prosecution case."
"Mr Justice John Edwards said on Monday that "such were the stridency and emphasis" of comments made by Mr Justice Tony Hunt while he charged the jury, "there is a real possibility the jury could have perceived that he was personally convinced of the guilt of the accused and that implicitly he was pressing them to deliver a guilty verdict"."
Aaron Connolly, serving a life sentence for the murder of teenager Cameron Reilly, had his conviction quashed. The Court of Appeal found that the trial judge’s instructions to the jury lacked balance. Some parts of the charge may have been perceived as advocacy for the prosecution case. Mr Justice John Edwards stated that the trial judge’s comments had stridency and emphasis. He said there was a real possibility the jury could have perceived personal conviction of the accused’s guilt. He also said the jury could have implicitly been pressed to deliver a guilty verdict.
Read at Irish Independent
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]