Graham Zoppi Criminal Lawyer will share with you some of the reasons for re – opening a criminal case.
The reasons for the reopening of criminal proceedings under the are:
- if the verdict is based on a false document or false statement of a witness, expert witness, expert advisor, translator, interpreter or accomplice;
- if the verdict was due to the criminal act of the public prosecutor, judge, lay judge or the person who took the evidentiary actions;
- if new facts are presented or new evidence is presented which, on its own or in connection with earlier facts or evidence, may lead to the denial of the charge or acquittal or to a conviction under a more lenient criminal law;
- if he or she has been tried several times for the same offense or if he or she has been convicted of more than one person for the same offense that only one or one of them could have done;
- if, in the case of a conviction for a prolonged criminal offense or for another criminal offense which, by law, involves more or less identical or more diverse acts, new facts are presented or new evidence is submitted indicating that he did not commit the action covered in part by the conviction, and the existence of these facts would lead to the application of a more lenient law or significantly affect the sentencing;
- if new facts were presented or new evidence was presented which was not available when the sentence of imprisonment was pronounced or the court did not know about them even though they existed, and they would obviously lead to a lighter criminal sentence;
- if new facts are presented or new evidence is presented that the defendant has not been duly served with a summoning hearing which was held in his absence.
It is noticeable that all the reasons for the reopening of criminal proceedings, with the exception of the latter, are material in nature, and concern the emergence of new facts or evidence, which were not known or did not exist at the time of the verdict, which in this case would lead to a more favorable outcome for the defendant.
The Code also specifies the time limit within which a request for a retrial may be filed, again distinguishing between the reasons, on the basis of which a retrial may be sought until the sentence of imprisonment has been served.
Jurisdiction to decide upon requests for retrial
The jurisdiction of the panel is the court which, after a hearing held in the absence of the defendant, rendered a decision. The panel, when deciding on the request, must not have a judge who participated in the earlier ruling. Also, the Code prescribes in this part the obligation of the court to inform the defendant, that is, the person authorized to file a request on behalf of the defendant, if there is any reason to repeat the procedure.