A VERITABLE REVOLUTION: THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL IN ENGLISH CRIMINAL HISTORY 1908-1958 A THESIS IN History Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS by CECILE ARDEN PHILLIPS B.A. University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1986 Kansas City, Missouri 2012 © 2012 CECILE ARDEN PHILLIPS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED A VERITABLE REVOLUTION: THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL IN ENGLISH CRIMINAL HISTORY 1908-1958 Cecile Arden Phillips, Candidate for the Masters of Arts Degree University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2012 ABSTRACT In a historic speech to the House of Commons on April 17, 1907, British Attorney General, John Lawson Walton, proposed the formation of what was to be the first court of criminal appeal in English history. Such a court had been debated, but ultimately rejected, by successive governments for over half a century. In each debate, members of the judiciary declared that a court for appeals in criminal cases held the potential of destroying the world-respected English judicial system. The 1907 debates were no less contentious, but the newly elected Liberal government saw social reform, including judicial reform, as their highest priority. After much compromise and some of the most overwrought speeches in the history of Parliament, the Court of Criminal Appeal was created in August 1907 and began hearing cases in May 1908. A Veritable Revolution is a social history of the Court’s first fifty years. There is no doubt, that John Walton and the other founders of the Court of Criminal Appeal intended it to provide protection from the miscarriage of justice for English citizens convicted of criminal offenses. The Court was certainly hard won and worthy of abundant praise, but its organization would prove problematic and, at times, horribly detrimental for over fifty years. From its inception, the Court was under the iii complete control of the highest-ranking permanent member of the English judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice. Therefore, the quality of the Court and the practical application of its principals were intertwined with the character of a single individual. If the Lord Chief Justice understood and accepted the ideology on which the Court was founded, the Court of Criminal Appeal was indeed the tremendous asset to English justice of which Walton spoke in 1907. But if the Lord Chief Justice, for whatever reason, believed that an English citizen convicted of a crime had no rights, then the Court of Criminal Appeal was turned on its head and did not prevent, but in fact helped create miscarriages of justice so profound that it would take another fifty years to correct them. iv APPROVAL PAGE The faculty listed below, appointed by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Dean of the Conservatory of Music and Dance have examined a thesis titled A Veritable Revolution: The Court of Criminal Appeal in English Criminal History 1908-1958 , presented by Cecile Arden Phillips, candidate for the Master of Arts degree, and certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. Supervisory Committee Lynda Payne, Ph.D., Committee Chair Department of History William Everett, Ph.D. Conservatory of Music and Dance Dennis Merrill, Ph.D. Department of History v CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ vii Chapter 1. A CLEAR AND TEMPERATE SPEECH ...................................................................1 2. THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE’S COURT ................................................................. 28 3. THE REIGN OF LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GODDARD .......................................... 61 4. EPILOGUE ................................................................................................................. 91 The Birth of the CCRC .............................................................................................. 91 APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................... 98 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................... 99 VITA ................................................................................................................................. 105 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am sincerely grateful to Dr. Lynda Payne for all the help she has given me so I might better understand the British belief that justice for all its citizens is not constrained by the passage of time. This sense of justice is something of which she as a Briton is surely proud and I, and so many others, are profoundly envious. Although A Veritable Revolution often highlights miscarriages in British justice, it must be remembered that those miscarriages of justice are still visible because, no matter how long ago they occurred, they were considered wholly unacceptable and were not allowed to rest until they were put right. vii CHAPTER 1 A CLEAR AND TEMPERATE SPEECH [The Court of Criminal Appeal] yields to none in the order of its importance. It affects immediately and possibly for all time the administration of justice in that sphere of its operations in which it touches the defense of personal security, which is the absolute condition of individual happiness and welfare on the part of every member of the community throughout all classes of our population. —Attorney General, Sir John Lawson Walton, 17 April 1907 On August 20, 1911, Rose Render’s body was discovered lying at the foot of the stairs in front of 1 Upper Yardley Street, off Wilmington Square, London. The woman who occupied the lower level of the building had, moments before, heard a woman scream, “Don’t Charlie, don’t!” and then groan. She woke her husband and together they heard another groan from the street. By the time the couple reached their door, Rose’s body was alone and lifeless. Another person who happened along set the time at 2:15 in the morning. He testified at trial that there was blood on Rose’s dress, on the steps, and on the pavement. He went on to say, “I thought she was dead. We got a constable.” 1 Rose Render was stabbed at least eight times. Divisional Surgeon of Police, Thomas Kobe, conducted the post-mortem. At trial he described what he found: A puncture wound about an inch long, two and a half inches deep, and passing downwards to the pelvic bone on the left side and touching it was probably the first inflicted. The fatal wound was one below the clavicle; it entered the chest wall, penetrated the left lung and opened the sac covering the heart, entering the pulmonary artery. There was a wound between the seventh and eighth ribs, which penetrated the liver; there were four wounds on the right arm and two below the right shoulder. There was also a wound on the inside of the left hand extending to the bone. 2 Charles Ellsom, Rose Render’s live-in boyfriend, was arrested and charged with her murder. Although he denied all knowledge of the crime, Ellsom was tried, convicted, 1 Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 3 June 2010), September 1911, trial of Charles Ellsom (t19110905-75). 2 Ibid. 1 and sentenced to death on September 5, 1911. Had he committed this crime three years earlier the only appeal allowed on his conviction or sentence would have been to the British Home Secretary. And one cannot imagine given the brutality of Rose Render’s murder that Ellsom would have been shown any mercy. But Charles Ellsom was a most fortunate murderer. Ellsom’s good luck began with the passing of the Criminal Appeal Act in August 1907. This act mandated the creation of the first Court of Criminal Appeal in England’s long history. Today, it is difficult to imagine the Court of Appeal—Criminal Division (as it is now called) being anything but a welcome addition to Britain’s system of justice. However, the beginning of this court was anything but universally welcomed. Debate raged over the court in Parliament and in the leading newspapers of the day. Dire consequences were predicted if such a court was formed—with a complete breakdown of the criminal justice system feared by many. While others, most notably, Home Secretary, Herbert Gladstone, was astounded that such a court did not already exist. He declared Britain to be the “only civilized country” that did not allow appeals in criminal cases. 3 It was therefore, not at all surprising that an editorial in The Times on July 30, 1907, summed up the general atmosphere surrounding the birth of the Court of Criminal Appeal by proclaiming it “a veritable revolution in criminal procedure.” This last, successful push to form a court of appeal for criminal cases was a direct result of the 1906 landslide victory for the Liberal Party. Prime Minister, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, produced the first “coherent Liberal administration”4 since the era 3Hansard Parliamentary Debates , vol. 175 (1907), col. 186. 4 Ewen A. Cameron, “‘Maistly Scotch’: Campbell-Bannerman and Liberal Leadership.” Journal of Liberal History 54, (Spring 2007). http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/54_Spring_2007.pdf (accessed October 3, 2011). 2 of Prime Minister William Gladstone and “constitutional reform was at the heart of his political outlook.” 5 Education, land reform, and Irish Home Rule, were all priorities for Campbell-Bannerman’s government. But equally important was