Review route · Scotland
SCCRC reference
The Commission can refer a case where a miscarriage of justice may have occurred and a reference is in the interests of justice. Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, ss 194B, 194C
Legal information on criminal appeals and wrongful conviction cases in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the Commonwealth and Europe, for practitioners and for people considering an appeal.
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A judge told jurors there was no consent in law unless the complainant communicated it by words or conduct. That is not the law for the act of sexual assault. Combined with a Crown closing that said the accused had every reason to lie, the conviction could not stand.
R. v. C.L., 2026 ONCA 791
A divided court holds that telling a noncitizen she can stay in the country, when the plea in fact makes removal mandatory, is constitutionally deficient advice, and that corroborated testimony plus a plausible trial defense can show prejudice even without contemporaneous evidence.
Morillo v. United States, No. 25-2027
The accused argued the trial judge mishandled a witness who needed special caution, that new bail documents showed a motive to lie, and that the verdict was unreasonable. The court rejected all three, and left open whether the Vetrovec caution applies in sexual offence cases at all.
R v McFadden, 2026 MBCA 86, 2026 MBCA 86
Because the formal order was never issued, the court still had power to reopen. It declined: the delay was largely unexplained, the proposed fresh evidence was not truly fresh, and nothing suggested a miscarriage of justice.
R. v. Chheda, 2026 ONCA 689
Dismissed appeals are reported as carefully as successful ones.
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