[2009] EWCA Crim 1239

An appellant who had been convicted of murder in circumstances where he had pleaded guilty to manslaughter failed in his appeal against conviction where he alleged that his legal advisers had been wrong to advise him not to give evidence at trial and where he criticised the judge's summing up. The advice he had been given was faultless and the judge's summing up perfectly adequate. Summing up was not written for people who come to the case at a later stage; what mattered in a summing up was whether the issues for the jury were sufficiently identified at the time.

CA (Crim Div) (Hughes LJ (V-P) , Holroyde J, Sir Christopher Holland)

20/05/2009