Knight v The Queen

The applicant, Knight, sought special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia against a verdict returned in his trial. The respondent was The Queen. The applicant's challenge concerned the alleged unsafety of the verdict and the analysis of this issue by the Court of Criminal Appeal.

The legal issues before the High Court included whether the majority of the Court of Criminal Appeal erred in their factual assessment of the evidence, whether the Chief Justice misdirected himself, and whether a particular judge failed to consider alternative hypotheses that were referred to by another judge. The applicant also contended that the analysis of the evidence by one of the judges was flawed, particularly concerning the timing and nature of a struggle preceding a second shot.

The applicant argued that the evidence, when properly considered, supported the alternative hypotheses identified by Mr Justice Crockett, suggesting that no jury could have gone further than the conclusion reached by that judge. This was in the context of a verdict of manslaughter in relation to a separate incident and the circumstances surrounding the firing of two shots during a struggle. The applicant emphasised the clear evidence of a struggle and the trajectory of the gun, arguing that these factors were omitted or inadequately considered in the principal judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeal.