BCL associate Umar Azmeh’s case comment on R v Jex and others [2021] EWCA Crim. 1708 has been published in the latest edition of the Criminal Law Review.

*Here is a short extract from the article:

R v Jex and others [2021] EWCA Crim. 1708 was a paradigm example of a sentencing case which demonstrates the extent to which sentencing law and procedure in England and Wales is impenetrable. During the course of the case in the Court of Appeal, for example, Edis LJ variously sat as a District Judge (MC), a Crown Court Judge and a Judge of the High Court, along with his usual role as a Lord Justice of Appeal, in order to correct some of the errors that had occurred during the sentencing exercise in the court below.  Umar’s Case Comment analyses the sentencing issues that arose at first instance, and the response of the Court of Appeal to the various errors that arose. The Case Comment notes that the issues are not not simply esoteric or abstruse points of fine sentencing procedure, but that the complexity of sentencing in the jurisdiction produces real injustice, with one of the appellants serving a significantly shorter custodial sentence than he ought to have served had the sentencing exercise at first instance been conducted accurately.

*This article was first published by Thomson Reuters in March 2022. If you wish to read the full article, please visit Thomson Reuters Westlaw website.

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