DWK client's murder conviction referred to Court of Appeal by CCRC

CCRC Referral | R v RK | Court of Appeal

DWK Solicitors are pleased to announce that the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has referred the murder conviction of our client to the Court of Appeal, following a significant change in the law.

Robert Knapp was convicted on 19 July 2002 at the Central Criminal Court of the murder of Mohammed Raja and received a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years. The prosecution alleged that Mr Knapp was one of two men who attended the victim's home and committed the murder. His application for leave to appeal was refused by the Court of Appeal in October 2003. Mr Knapp subsequently applied to the CCRC in February 2020.

The referral centres on a development in case law which suggests that in most murder cases, an alternative verdict of manslaughter should be left to the jury for consideration at trial. The question of whether manslaughter should have been left as an alternative verdict was considered by the trial judge at the time and raised on appeal, however, the new case law now raises a real possibility that the Court of Appeal will find that manslaughter should have been available to the jury in this case.

The concern is that where manslaughter is not left as an alternative, a jury may convict a defendant of murder simply because they are responsible for a death, when the lesser charge may in fact be more appropriate. This raises a real possibility that the conviction is unsafe.

DWK represent Mr Knapp and will be advancing his case before the Court of Appeal. Further updates will follow as proceedings progress.

For more information on the CCRC's referral decision, please see the official CCRC press release here.