Murder Retrial Law Comes Into Force

A law allowing retrials in serious criminal cases has come into effect today, the Minister for Justice has announced.

The Criminal Procedure Act 2010 ends the ban on retrying people who have been acquitted in serious cases where important new evidence emerges later about their involvement in the offence.

Until today, those already tried for an offence could not be retried if acquitted under rules usually referred to as 'double jeopardy'.

Announcing the new law, Dermot Ahern TD, said: "This new Act takes effect from today and is a significant and historic development in our criminal law. As and from today retrials can be ordered in, for instance, murder cases where an accused has been acquitted.

"From today if new and compelling evidence emerges, or where the first trial was tainted by an issue such as perjury or intimidation, a individual can face a retrial. There would also be provision for a retrial where the judge at the first trial erred in law by, for example, excluding certain evidence."

Mr Ahern said he believed most members of the public would welcome the law, particularly victims.

"There can be no greater grief for a family than knowing in their hearts a guilty person has walked free and that, even if new evidence emerges, a person acquitted of murder can never face a retrial. From today that has been rectified," he added.

Minister Ahern stressed that retrials could happen only in serious cases and only after the courts had granted an application made by the DPP to quash the acquittal and order a retrial.

The Act sets high thresholds, which the DPP will be required to meet before an application is made.

(DW/GK)