“LAW DISREGARDED”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1938, Page 7

“LAW DISREGARDED”

A CONVICTION QUASHED. COMEDY OF LEGAL ERRORS. What was described as a “comedy of errors” was referred to when Lord Hewart and Justices Charles and Humphreys, in the Court of Criminal Appeal, London, quashed the conviction of James Samuel Joseph Lester at the London Sessions for “receiving.” Mi- Justice Humphreys said that, although the indictment contained counts alleging larceny and receiving a bicycle knowing it to have been stolen, Lester was tried and put in charge of the jury on the count of larceny only. But the jury acquitted him of stealing and found him guilty of “receiving.” Nobody seemed to have realised until then that Lester had not been put in charge of the jury on the “receiving” count, and the assistant chairman (Mr A. W. Cockburn, K.C.) admitted that he had not directed the jury on the law about that matter. He refused, in the circumstances, to accept the verdict, and ordered a new trial. That came on at the next sessions, and Lester was charged with “receiving.” He was defended by counsel, who put up the plea of “autrefois convict.” ("Autrefois convict” is a plea by an accused person that he has been previously convicted of the same crime—which is a good bar to an indictment.) The chairman of sessions accepted that, but taking the view that the conviction at the last sessions was standing, he bound Lester over. "It seems to have been a comedy of errors,” said Mr Justice Humphreys. “The law seems to have been consistently disregarded. There is no crime in the the calendar which requires more careful direction as to the law than that of ‘receiving’.” Lester’s conviction was quashed and the “binding over” order cancelled.