SCOTTISH CRIMINAL CASES REVIEW COMMISSION

Application for review of conviction, sentence or both

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission is responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice in relation to convictions and sentences imposed by criminal courts in Scotland. We cannot deal with civil or military cases.

After investigation, if we conclude that there may have been a miscarriage of justice, we have the power to refer a case to the High Court of Justiciary for a decision. We will do this when we consider it to be in the interests of justice.

The High Court of Justiciary deals with criminal appeals in Scotland.

Please send your completed forms, with any supporting documents, to the following address:

Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
5th Floor, Portland House
17 Renfield Street
Glasgow
G2 5AH

Tel: 0141 270 7030
Fax: 0141 270 7040
E-mail: info@sccrc.org.uk
Website: www.sccrc.org.uk

If you need any help to complete this form, please ask us.

We can arrange a translation service to help you fill in the form if you do not speak English.

Guidance and information notes

Please try to answer all the questions. If you cannot answer them all, please answer as many as possible. Before completing the form, you need to consider the following points:

• Have you been convicted or sentenced by a criminal court in Scotland?
• Do you believe you have suffered a miscarriage of justice in relation to the conviction or sentence?
• To apply to us, you do not need to have already appealed against conviction or sentence. But if you have not appealed, then:
– we will want to know why; and
– we recommend that you take legal advice on doing so immediately, even if the time limit for an appeal has passed.
• You may be entitled to free legal advice from a solicitor to help you complete this form, under the Legal Advice and Assistance Scheme. However, you do not have to ask a solicitor to do this before applying to us.
• After we have received your form, we will need to obtain, record and hold personal information about you so that we can review your case. We will handle and disclose all such information only in accordance with our duties laid down by law.
• If, after reviewing your case, we decide to refer your case to the High Court, we will issue a short press release saying so. This will mean that we announce the decision to refer your case soon after telling you why we have reached that decision. We also mention referred cases in our annual reports and on our website.
• You are responsible for letting us know your up-to-date contact address.

Part 1: Personal information

1. What are your first names? Please
include any middle names.

2. What is your surname?

If you have ever been known by a different name, please answer questions 3 and 4.

3. By what first name were you known ?

4. By what surname were you known ?

5. What is your date of birth? Day/month/year

6. Are you male or female?
Please tick the correct box.

Male Female

7. If you are in prison, what is the name of the prison?

8. What is your prisoner number?

9. What is your earliest date of release?

10. What is your parole qualifying date?

11. What is your home address, postcode and contact telephone number?

It is important to let us know about any change of address. If you are released from prison, you should tell us your new address.

Part 2: Details of representatives

12. What is the name of the person or
organisation, if any, helping you with
this form?

13. What is the address of the person or organisation helping you?

14. If you have asked a solicitor or other organisation to help you complete the form, please tick this box if you wish us to correspond with them directly instead of you.

Part 3: Details of your conviction, sentence and review

We need details of the conviction or sentence (or both) that you want us to review. When answering the questions in this section please include all charges on the same indictment or complaint against you, including any charges that did not result in a conviction. If you need more space, please continue on a separate sheet.

Whether or not you want us to review your sentence, we need details of it – for example, any prison sentence, community service order, probation order, or any other order made by the court.

Please specify whether you want us to review conviction only, sentence only or both conviction and sentence by ticking the appropriate boxes at question 18 on the next page.

15. We need details of the court in which you were convicted.
Please tick the box that describes the court in which you were convicted. The High Court

The Sheriff Court (with a jury)

The Sheriff Court (without a jury)

The District Court

16. In which town or city is the court in which you were convicted?

17. What was the date of your conviction?

18. Type of charge
(for example murder, robbery, misuse of drugs etc) Tick this box if you pled guilty to this charge Tick this box if you pled not guilty to this charge
Tick this box if you were convicted of this charge after trial What was the sentence? Tick this box if you wish us to review your conviction Tick this box if you wish us to review your sentence

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

19. If you had any co-accused, what are
their names?

20. If you were given a prison sentence, what was the total sentence?

Part 4: Appeal

We need to know about any previous appeal proceedings against the conviction or sentence (or both) that you have detailed above at question 18

21. Have you appealed against conviction? Yes No

22. Have you appealed against sentence?
Yes No

23 If Yes to question 21 or 22, was there an appeal hearing?
Yes No

24. If Yes, what were the dates of all the appeal hearings?

25. What was the outcome of your appeal?

26. What is the reference number for your appeal?

27. If you did not appeal against the conviction or sentence that you want us to review and you did not take any steps to start appeal proceedings, please list the reasons why you did not do so.

28. If you did not appeal against conviction or sentence but you did take steps to try to do so, please describe what steps you took. If you spoke to a solicitor about an appeal, please give the name and address of the solicitor and state why you did not take the appeal further.

Part 5: Petitions to the Secretary of state

We need to know if you applied before April 1999 to the Secretary of State for Scotland to consider this case.

29. Did you ask the Secretary of State for Scotland to consider your case before April 1999?
Yes No

Part 6: Grounds for review

Conviction

30. If you have ticked the box asking us to review your conviction, we need to know why you believe you have suffered a miscarriage of justice in relation to your conviction. Please list the reasons in this box. If you need more space, please complete the reasons on a separate piece of paper.

Sentence

31. If you have ticked the box asking us to review your sentence, we need to know why you believe you have suffered a miscarriage of justice in relation to your sentence. Please list the reasons in this box. If you need more space, please complete the reasons on a separate piece of paper.

Part 7: Special circumstances

32. We need to know about any special circumstances relevant to your application; for example your health, or the health of other individuals involved in your case, or any evidence that is likely to deteriorate (for example, a witness may have a terminal illness or certain items used at the trial may be likely to decay). Please list these special circumstances in this box.

Part 8: Previous applications
We need to know about about any other application that you may have made to us.

33. Please tick this box if you have made any other application to us.

34. What was our reference number for that application?


Part 9: Accompanying documents
We would like a list of the papers you are sending to us with this form.

35. Please list the documents you are sending with your application. It is helpful to provide as many relevant documents as you can. You may wish to keep copies of any documents you send us. If you need more space to list them, please continue on a separate piece of paper.
Number of pages

Part 10: Solicitor at trial and appeal

36. What is the name and address of the
solicitor who represented you at trial?

37. What is the name and address of the
solicitor who represented you at appeal?

It would be useful for us to know how you heard about the Commission. For example, was it through a friend, a legal adviser, a citizens advice bureau or other organisation or individual?

38. How did you hear about the Commission?

Part 11: Data protection

I want the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to review my case. I know that this will mean that the Commission will obtain, record and hold information about my case and I give the Commission my explicit consent to do so.

Sign here

Date of signing
Day/Month/Year

Part 12: Permission to your legal advisers

To investigate your application fully, we will need to get information about your case from the solicitor or advocate, or both, who represented you at your trial or appeal, or both. This may include information about how your case was prepared and presented at trial and appeal.

In some cases we may need to get details of confidential discussions you may have had with your solicitor or advocate, or both, about your case. We may only be able to investigate your application if we have such information. To release it, those who acted for you may need your permission.

If you are happy to provide this permission, please sign the box below. Please note that this is an important step and we suggest that you get legal advice before agreeing to it.

By signing this application you will give your legal advisers permission to give us the information we ask for.

Sign here

Date of signing
Day/Month/Year

Who is the solicitor holding your defence papers?

Name

Address

Postcode

Phone Fax