David Emanuel KC

David is a specialist appellate lawyer who has spent his career representing convicted defendants protesting their innocence. His meticulous dissection of the trial process and ability to recognise what went wrong has led to numerous successful out of time appeals.

 

David also challenges convictions through the CCRC. In the last 18 months alone, he has won three separate appeals against conviction following successful CCRC referrals. Two of those cases were murders where the Court of Appeal ordered retrials, of which David secured acquittals in both. Those two defendants had spent 18 years and 5 years respectively in prison for crimes that it was ultimately shown they had not committed.

 

A number of the cases where he has identified flawed legal directions or errors in the application of the law are now the leading cases in their field. These include deception in consent cases; partial good character; distress directions; and the sentencing of young adults.

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David has also successfully conducted high-profile appeals involving fresh evidence which include historic baby shaking; gross negligence manslaughter by a consultant surgeon; and undiagnosed autism in a young defendant on trial for murder.