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Court of Appeal dismisses appeal of murder conviction where the appellant stabbed the victim through the heart with a kitchen knife after failing to find a vein to inject heroin, on the grounds that: 1) remarks made by the trial judge concerning the weight to attach to evidence of garda interviews given by the appellant did not undermine the right to silence in an impermissible manner; 2) there was no failure to advise the jury that they could disagree after three hours of deliberations; and 3) the trial judge's charge dealt with the ingredients of the offence of murder, the mental element required for murder and the relevance of the rebuttable presumption in an impeccable manner.
Criminal law – appeal of murder conviction – whether the appropriate verdict was one of murder or of manslaughter – absence of any intention to kill or cause serious injury and the rebuttable presumption pursuant to s. 4(2) of the Criminal Justice Act, 1964 – whether the judge erred in law and in fact in her charge to the jury by undermining the appellant’s right to silence by adversely comparing answers in interview to evidence on oath – whether the judge erred when she failed to discharge the jury, having made an ill-timed comment on key evidence at a crucial stage of the jury’s deliberation – whether the judge failed to instruct the jury in relation to the option to disagree in a timely manner – remarks made did not undermine the right to silence in an impermissible manner – whether this was a case where there should have been a direction on the murder charge – manifestly a case which required to be considered by the jury – criticisms of the charge are unfounded – appeal dismissed.
Note: This is intended to be a fair and accurate report of a decision made public by a court of law. Any errors should be notified to the editor and will be dealt with accordingly.
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