The High Court has refused Alan Harte’s application to challenge the Special Criminal Court’s rules on majority verdicts and whether it tells an accused if a verdict was unanimous.
Harte argued that section 40 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939, which permits decisions by a majority and bars disclosure of whether a decision was unanimous, breached constitutional rights to equality, a fair trial and public justice. He sought declarations that the rules were unconstitutional, that his trial was unfair, and an order setting aside his conviction and sentence.
Justice Bolger delivered judgment on 2 October 2023. She held that the Constitution permits a Special Criminal Court to operate with a different process from jury courts. The applicant had no constitutional right to the same trial procedures as a jury defendant, or to a majority threshold of a particular proportion.
The judge also rejected the equality argument. She said Harte was not in a comparable legal position to a person tried before a jury because the Special Criminal Court process is provided for by the Constitution, statute and a Government Proclamation. Different treatment arising from that process did not breach the constitutional guarantee of equality, she found.
On disclosure, the judgment said the Constitution does not require Special Criminal Court trials to be held in public. The court’s practice of not revealing whether a verdict was unanimous or by majority, and not publishing any dissenting opinions, did not breach the requirement that an accused be tried in due course of law. The judge said majority decisions carry the same binding force as unanimous decisions and do not reduce appeal rights. Harte had received a written, reasoned decision, she noted.
Harte was charged in November 2019 with false imprisonment and causing serious harm. The Director of Public Prosecutions certified in March 2020 that the ordinary courts were inadequate to secure the effective administration of justice and preserve public peace and order in his case. That certification was not challenged in these proceedings.
The Special Criminal Court found Harte guilty in November 2021 and imposed a 30-year prison sentence the following month, backdated to the date he entered custody. The High Court refused the application for relief. It did not set aside the conviction or sentence.