Allocation and Sending of Offences
The mode of trial provisions are amended to allow the court to be made aware of the defendant's previous convictions at the mode of trial stage (that is, when the Magistrates' Court decides whether certain offences are to be tried summarily before them or before a judge and jury at the Crown Court). The right to commit to the Crown Court for sentence (when the Magistrates' Court regards its own powers as insufficient) is abolished for cases when it has previously accepted jurisdiction. These provisions amend the previous position when a defendant whose bad prior record means that he is tried summarily and then sent elsewhere for sentence; the same type of court deals with both trial and sentence in ordinary cases. The provisions were introduced under section 41 and section 42 of Part 6 of the act.
Read more about this topic: Criminal Justice Act 2003, Reforms To Court and Police Procedure
Famous quotes containing the words offences and/or sending:
“A strong argument for the religion of Christ is this—that offences against Charity are about the only ones which men on their death-beds can be made—not to understand—but to feel—as crime.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
“I have heard arguments ... in favor of pardoning D. M. Bennett, convicted of sending obscene matter through the mails, viz., a pamphlet [by Ezra Hervey Heywood] of a polemical character in favor of free love. While I am satisfied that Bennett ought not to have been convicted, I am not satisfied that I ought to undertake to correct the mistakes of the courts—constantly persisted in—by the exercise of the pardoning power.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)