Day, Mark

Mark Day was convicted in March 1993 of murder and received a sentence of life imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in April 1997.

The victim had been killed in the course of a fight.

The facts of the case were complicated, there having been two separate fights and questions around who had been involved in which fight.

There were also questions around the precise roles of different participants in the fight.

Mr Day’s solicitors had failed to instruct leading counsel until just before the trial, two briefs having been returned by previous counsel.

Having been engaged late, Mr Day’s barrister was forced to absent himself for part of the trial, leaving the matter with inexperienced junior counsel.

The CCRC also considered that Mr Day’s solicitors had not adequately explored all relevant issues to the detriment of the defence’s strategy at trial.

The CCRC concluded that deficiencies in the pre-trial handling of the case had affected the direction of the trial and it referred the conviction in October 2001.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in April 2003.