Roe (Dec) v The State of Western Australia

The case of Roe (Dec) v The State of Western Australia involved the deceased appellant who had been convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 21 years. Following his conviction, the appellant filed an appeal notice and an application for an extension of time to appeal against the conviction. However, the appellant did not file the required appellant's case and, after several directions hearings, he died before the appeal could be heard. Subsequently, the State filed an application for the dismissal of the appeal due to the appellant’s death.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether the appeal against the appellant's conviction had abated upon his death. The court had to interpret the Criminal Appeals Act 2004 (WA) to determine if the appellant's death terminated the appeal process. The court referenced the case of Bell (Dec) v The State of Western Australia [2015] WASCA 236, which dealt with the abatement of an offender's appeal against sentence due to death. By analogy, the court concluded that the appeal against conviction also abated upon the appellant's death.

The court found that upon the appellant's death, the appeal against his conviction ceased to exist, thus abating. Given this conclusion, the court ruled that it was appropriate to dismiss the appeal as requested by the State. Therefore, the court ordered that the appellant's appeal against his conviction be dismissed.