Diarmuid Phelan’s trial opened just days after the Supreme Court delivered an important judgment clarifying the law on self-defence in the context of a murder charge.
That judgment dismissed an appeal by Mark Crawford (44), formerly of Quarry Road, Thomondgate, Co Limerick, over his 2020 conviction for the murder on July 7th, 2018 of Patrick ‘Pa’ O’Connor, who died after Crawford stabbed him six times in a bar in Limerick city.
Crawford’s claim he acted in self-defence out of honest belief he was under threat of an imminent attack was rejected by the trial jury. When jailing Crawford for life, Ms Justice Tara Burns described the assault as an act “of madness, fuelled by drink and drugs”.
In the Supreme Court judgment, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly set out a sample charge for judges concerning the law on self-defence which addressed how it may, depending on the facts and evidence in each case, reduce a murder charge to one of manslaughter or acquittal.
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It may be suitable to give a jury a “route to verdict” (RTV) document which should take into account the issues for determination in a specific trial, she said. She set out a sample RTV, involving certain questions to be answered by juries in the context of cases where self-defence was raised as a defence to murder.
The Crawford decision, as the most up-to-date statement of the law concerning self-defence in answer to a murder charge, was extensively referred to during Phelan’s trial.
Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford’s charge on the law appeared modelled on the sample charge in Crawford and, on its conclusion, she provided each juror with a RTV document. Counsel for both sides had prepared draft RTVs but the judge decided the content of the final document.
RTVs have been used in English courts for some time but their use is novel in Ireland, where the courts almost exclusively rely on verbal instructions from the judge to the jury.
An RTV is a written aid containing questions, focusing on the law, issues and evidence in the case, aimed at leading the jury to a legally justified verdict.
In an article published in the Irish Judicial Studies Journal in 2023, legal academic Jack Healy LLB advocated for the introduction of RTVs in Ireland. Their main advantage was aiding jury comprehension, particularly in complex cases, he said. He also recommended a written version of the judge’s charge should be provided to juries as standard.
Jurors as laypersons would, in many instances, lack an understanding of some legal terms, tests and standards, particularly in long and complex criminal trials, he said. The clarity of judges’ charges to juries – the summing up of cases and outline of the applicable law – varied from one judge to another, he also noted.
An RTV should be seen as a complement to a judge’s charge, not a replacement, he stressed.
RTVs enabled appellate courts to identify issues and appeal points easily, and some UK judges said they appeared to lead to jurors spending less time seeking to understand their task, Mr Healy said.
RTVs had potential to improve transparency as accused persons and the wider public were able to see more clearly why a particular verdict was reached, he said.
There are some concerns, however. The English Court of Appeal recently praised RTVs for providing invaluable assistance to juries but said there was a risk of oversimplifying questions to such an extent they distort the issues a jury has to consider.
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