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· Flaws during trial would carry less weight · Ministers suppress legal experts' criticisms
The government has suppressed for more than six months an overwhelmingly hostile reaction by judges and legal experts to proposals to restrict the appeal court's powers to quash convictions. Senior appeal court judges, the council of circuit judges, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and, in a personal response, its chairman, Graham Zellick, all lambasted the plans in unpublished responses, the Guardian has learned.
Other bodies, including the Law Society, the Criminal Bar Association and the campaigning groups Justice and Liberty, have made their objections public. But the government has ignored Cabinet Office guidelines on publishing the responses to consultations, though the measures are now part of a bill due for a second reading next week.
The measure, which would require judges to uphold a conviction if they thought the defendant was guilty despite flaws in the trial or pre-trial process, has been incorporated in the criminal justice and immigration bill, scheduled for second reading next Monday. Ministers have responded in part to the outcry by adding a new provision that judges need not uphold the conviction if they believe this would be incompatible with the defendant's human rights.
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