Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales 1946-1958

Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard (April 10, 1877–May 29, 1971) was Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 1946 to 1958 and known for his heavy sentencing and reactionary views. Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales 1946-1958 This work is copyrighted. ... Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales 1946-1958 This work is copyrighted. ... April 10 is the 100th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (101st in leap years). ... 1877 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... May 29 is the 149th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (150th in leap years). ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, and the presiding judge of Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal, and of the Queens Bench Division of the High Court. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Background

Goddard attended Marlborough College, where he decided on a career in law. In later life he vigorously denied the frequent claims of Lord Jowitt that he had amused his contemporaries by reciting, word for word, the form of the death sentence upon those whom he disliked. He later attended Trinity College, Oxford and was called to the Bar by both the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn in 1899. Marlborough College is a British boarding school in the county of Wiltshire, founded in 1843 for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy, although it now accepts both boys and girls of all beliefs. ... William Allen Jowitt, 1st Earl Jowitt (15 April 1885 - 16 August 1957), was a British lawyer and politician. ... College name Trinity College Named after The Holy Trinity Established 1555 Sister College Churchill College President The Hon. ... A bar association is a body of lawyers who, in some jurisdictions, are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession. ... The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple is one of the four Inns of Court around the Royal Courts of Justice in London, England, to which barristers belong and where they are called to the Bar. ... Entrance to Grays Inn Grays Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in around the Royal Courts of Justice in London, England to which barristers belong and where they are called to the bar. ... 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

He became known as a reasonable advocate in commercial cases on the Western Circuit and was appointed as Recorder of Poole (a part-time Judgeship) in 1917. He was appointed a King's Counsel in 1923, transferred to be Recorder of Bath in 1925, and eventually Recorder of Plymouth in 1928. In the general election of 1929, Goddard agreed, against his better judgment, to contest the Kensington South constituency as an unofficial Conservative candidate. The sitting Conservative MP had been a defendant in a divorce case, and a local committee thought the newly-enfranchised young women voters would refuse to support him. In the end, Goddard won 15% of the vote and the sitting member was returned. Poole is a coastal town, port and tourist destination in the traditional county of Dorset in southern England. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... Queens Counsel (postnominal QC), during the reign of a male Sovereign known as Kings Counsel (KC), are barristers or, in Scotland, advocates appointed by Letters patent to be one of Her Majestys Counsel learned in the law. They do not constitute a separate order or degree of... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... For other uses, see Bath (disambiguation). ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Plymouth is a city in the South West of England, or alternatively the Westcountry, and is situated within the traditional county of Devon. ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Kensington is an area to the west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. ... The Conservative Party is one of the two largest political parties in the United Kingdom and the most successful party in political history based on election victories. ...

Judicial appointment

In 1932 Goddard was appointed as a full-time Judge of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of England and Wales. After only six years he was promoted again to be a Lord Justice of Appeal. Goddard was known for turning out well-argued and legally convincing judgments but tended to give stiff sentences, especially when he was personally offended by the crime. After another six year stint, he was appointed as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... Her Majestys High Court of Justice (known more simply as the High Court) is, together with the Crown Court and the Court of Appeal, part of the Supreme Court of Judicature in England and Wales: see Courts of England and Wales. ... Her Majestys Court of Appeal is the second most senior court in the English legal system (with only the judges of the House of Lords above it). ... The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, has a judicial function as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. ...

Lord Chief Justice

Viscount Caldecote, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, suffered a stroke in 1945 and suddenly resigned, creating a vacancy at an inopportune moment. The tradition was for the appointment to be a political one, with the Attorney-General stepping up to take it. However, Hartley Shawcross was unwilling and considered too young. The appointment of a stop-gap candidate was expected. As Goddard later explained, "They had to give the job to somebody. There wasn't anybody else available, so Attlee appointed me." The appointment came at a time when the crime rate, and public concern over crime, were both increasing. Through his judgments, Goddard made it clear that he felt that stronger sentences were the way to tackle both. Thomas Walker Hobart Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote was a British politician who served in many legal posts, culminating in serving as Lord Chancellor from 1939 until 1940. ... The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, and the presiding judge of Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal, and of the Queens Bench Division of the High Court. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Her Majestys Attorney General for England and Wales, usually known as the Attorney General, is the chief legal adviser of the Crown in England and Wales. ... Hartley Shawcross, Attorney-General of England and Wales 1945-51 The Right Honourable Hartley William Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, PC, GBE KC (February 4, 1902–July 10, 2003), was a British barrister and politician and the lead British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal. ... Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC (3 January 1883–8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951. ...

Political context

Goddard chose to continue his involvement with trials on the frontline, and opted to judge ordinary High Court cases as he was entitled to do. He presided over the 1946 libel trial at which Harold Laski, Chairman of the Labour Party, attempted unsuccessfully to sue the Daily Express for damages when it quoted him as saying that the party must take power "even if it means violence". In 1948 backbench pressure in the House of Commons forced through an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill to suspend capital punishment for five years, and the government automatically commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment. Goddard rallied opposition in the House of Lords, making his maiden speech to oppose not merely the capital punishment amendment but some of the reforms in the main Bill including the abolition of corporal punishment. 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... In English and American law, and systems based on them, libel and slander are two forms of defamation (or defamation of character), which is the tort or delict of making a false statement of fact that injures someones reputation. ... Harold Joseph Laski (June 30, 1893, Manchester, England - March 24, 1950, London, England) was an English political scientist, economist, author, and lecturer, and served as the 1945-1946 chairman of the Labour Party. ... The Labour Party has, since the early twentieth century, been the principal left wing political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). ... The Daily Express is a conservative, middle-market British tabloid newspaper. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the State as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offenses. ... A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected representative in such bodies as the House of Commons or the United States House of Representatives. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

In debate, he referred to a case he had tried of an agricultural labourer who had assaulted a jeweller; Goddard gave him a short two months' imprisonment and twelve strokes of the birch because "I was not then depriving the country of the services of a good agricultural labourer over the harvest". The suspension of capital punishment was reversed by 181 to 28, and a further amendment to retain the birch was also passed (though the Lords were later forced to give way on this issue). As the crime rate continued to rise, Goddard became convinced that the Criminal Justice Act 1948 was responsible as it was a 'Gangster's Charter'.

Craig and Bentley

In December 1952 Goddard decided to preside at the trial of Christopher Craig and Derek Bentley, accused of the murder of PC Sidney Miles. 16-year-old Craig had apparently shot Miles while resisting arrest on the roof of a factory he was attempting to rob; Bentley, who was 19 but of limited intelligence, had gone along with him and was accused of urging Craig to shoot. Goddard continually interrupted in support of the prosecution case and gave a heavily slanted summing-up. Both were convicted; while Craig was too young for a death sentence, Bentley was hanged despite his questionable guilt. In 1998 a posthumous appeal against conviction succeeded on the grounds of Goddard's conduct at trial, with the appeal court appeal stating Goddard had denied the defendant "the fair trial which is the birthright of every British citizen". 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Derek Bentley (30 June 1933 - 28 January 1953) was hanged at the age of 19 for a murder committed by a friend, creating a cause célèbre and leading to a 45-year long successful campaign to win him a posthumous pardon. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Despite his appointment as a stop-gap, Goddard served twelve years as Lord Chief Justice before retiring. He continued to intervene occasionally in Lords debates and public speeches to put his views on capital and corporal punishment. He died shortly before the controversy over the hanging of Derek Bentley was rehashed, but in an interview to author David Yallop in August 1970 Goddard said that he fully expected the Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyfe to have reprieved Bentley. Yallop quotes Goddard as saying "Yes. I thought Bentley was going to be reprieved. He certainly should have been. There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Bentley should have been reprieved". Goddard also claimed that Maxwell Fyfe never consulted him over the decision not to reprieve Bentley. This is disputed by John Parris in his book "Scapegoat" Duckworth 1991. Parris was Craig's barrister. He claims that Goddard passed on the recommendation of the jury for mercy with a recommendation that it be ignored and Bentley should be hanged. David Anthony Yallop (born 1937 London) is a British author who writes chiefly about unsolved crimes. ... August is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... The Secretary of State for the Home Department (the Home Secretary) is the chief United Kingdom government minister responsible for law and order in England and Wales; his or her remit includes policing, the criminal justice system, the prison service, internal security, and matters of citizenship and immigration. ... David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir (1900-1967) was an important British politician and jurist. ...

Criticism

After Goddard's death, he was attacked in the columns of The Times by Bernard Levin who described him as "a calamity" and accused him of vindictiveness and of being a malign influence on penal reform. The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ... (Henry) Bernard Levin CBE (August 19, 1928 - August 7, 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster. ...

References

• Lord Goddard: His career and cases by Glyn Jones and Eric Grimshaw (Allan Wingate, London, 1958).
• Lord Goddard: My Years With the Lord Chief Justice by Arthur Smith (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 1959) is a sympathetic biography by Goddard's chief clerk.
• Scapegoat* John Parris (Duckworth 1991) An account of the Craig and Bentley trial by Craig's barrister.