R v Baltensperger

The appellant, Baltensperger, was convicted of five counts of rape following a re-trial. He appealed against his conviction and applied for leave to appeal against the conviction. The appeal raised various grounds, including the trial judge's refusal to discharge the jury due to a sympathy card sent by the jury to the prosecutor. Baltensperger argued that this refusal amounted to a miscarriage of justice. The Court of Criminal Appeal examined whether the refusal to discharge the jury demonstrated a reasonable apprehension of bias or lack of impartiality on the part of the jury.

The Court of Criminal Appeal held that the refusal to discharge the jury did not amount to a miscarriage of justice. The jury had been directed to disregard their personal views and emotions, and there was no evidence to suggest that the jury was biased or lacked impartiality. The Court found that the trial judge had acted within his discretion in refusing to discharge the jury. Furthermore, the Court considered that the evidence presented at the re-trial was sufficient to support Baltensperger's conviction on all counts of rape. Therefore, the appeal against the conviction was dismissed.

The Court also addressed the appeal against the sentence, which Baltensperger argued was manifestly excessive. The Court noted that while it is generally accepted that a sentence imposed after a re-trial should not exceed the original sentence unless the original sentence was manifestly inadequate, the trial judge had exercised his discretion and found the original sentence to be inadequate. The Court upheld the trial judge's decision to impose a higher sentence, considering the evidence and circumstances of the case.

The final orders of the Court were that leave to appeal against conviction on ground 1 should be granted but leave to appeal against conviction should be refused on all other grounds. The appeal on ground 1 was dismissed, and the appeal against sentence was also dismissed. Baltensperger's convictions and sentence were upheld.