Parsons v The Queen

The case of *Parsons v The Queen* involved an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia from a decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal of New South Wales. The applicant, William John Parsons, had been convicted of murder and sentenced to penal servitude for life. The central dispute concerned the number of peremptory challenges he was entitled to during the empanelling of the jury.

The primary legal issue before the High Court was the interpretation of section 55(2) of the *Jury Act 1912* (N.S.W.). Specifically, the court had to determine whether the phrase "if the offence charged be capital" referred to offences that were capital at the time the subsection was enacted in 1912, or to offences in respect of which a prisoner stood in jeopardy of a capital sentence at the time of their trial. This question arose because the penalty for murder had been altered from death to penal servitude for life by the *Crimes (Amendment) Act 1955* (N.S.W.) prior to the applicant's trial.

The High Court, in dismissing the application for special leave to appeal, affirmed the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal. The majority reasoned that section 55(2) of the *Jury Act* was intended to have an ambulatory operation, meaning it applied to the circumstances at the time of the trial. The phrase "if the offence charged be capital" was interpreted to refer to the current penalty for the offence. Therefore, as murder was no longer a capital offence at the time of Parsons' trial due to the *Crimes (Amendment) Act 1955*, he was only entitled to eight peremptory challenges, not the twenty available for capital offences. The court found that the legislative change in the penalty for murder necessarily impacted the number of peremptory challenges available, as the right to twenty challenges was contingent on the offence being capital.

The application for special leave to appeal was refused.