CCRC Refers Murder Conviction: What a Referral Means

On 18 September 2026 the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred a murder conviction to the Court of Appeal — a decision that took two years and five months from the day the application landed, and which does not by itself overturn anything.

That second half is the part families most often misunderstand, so it is worth setting out what actually happened here and what a referral does and does not mean.

What the CCRC decided

The Commission referred the conviction of Jerome Bailey. He was convicted at Croydon Crown Court on 20 January 2020 of murdering his cousin Tefsa Campbell, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years. Both men were 40. Mr Campbell died from a stab wound during an altercation on 3 July 2019 near Burns Road and Latchmere Road in London.

Mr Bailey applied to the CCRC in April 2024. His application pointed to inconsistencies in what a witness had said at two different hearings. As the Commission sets out: "In 2022, Mr Bailey was re-tried on one count of having a bladed article in public. The jury had failed to reach a verdict on that count at the original trial." A "count" is one charge on the indictment — the list of offences a defendant is tried on.

The Commission found that "there are discrepancies between the evidence of one of the key witnesses at the original trial and the re-trial." It concluded that, had the jury heard the retrial evidence, "there is a real possibility that they may reasonably have reached a different conclusion."

In the CCRC's words: "If a case is referred, it is then for the appeal court to decide whether the conviction is unsafe." "Unsafe" is the legal test the Court of Appeal applies — it asks whether the conviction can be relied on, not whether the person is innocent. The CCRC does not decide that, and it does not argue the appeal.

The test the CCRC has to apply

The CCRC is an independent public body. It is not part of the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, or the court that convicted you. It reviews possible miscarriages of justice and can send a case back to the appeal courts.

It cannot do that just because a conviction looks wrong. The threshold is a real possibility that the conviction would not be upheld if a reference were made — and reaching that threshold normally requires new evidence or a new argument: something that was not put before the jury, or not raised at the original appeal.

That word "new" is where most applications stop. Repeating the defence that the jury already heard and rejected does not get a case referred, however strongly it is felt.

How a case travels through the Commission

The published process runs roughly like this:

• Eligibility checks. The Commission first checks whether you have already tried to appeal, whether it has the legal power to deal with your case, and whether you have applied about the same conviction before.
• Investigation. The CCRC obtains the court files and appeal papers, works out what investigation is needed, and allocates cases that meet its criteria to a Case Review Manager.
• Decision. If the Case Review Manager sees no substantial basis for a referral, an independent Commissioner — one of the senior decision-makers who sit at the top of the Commission — reviews that view and can either close the case or send it on. If the Manager thinks a referral is right, the case goes to a decision-making committee of at least three Commissioners.
• Provisional Statement of Reasons. Where the Commission is minded not to refer, it issues a Provisional Statement of Reasons and gives you 28 days to respond. That 28 days is a genuine opportunity, not a formality.

The numbers, honestly

Between April 1997 and July 2026 the CCRC received 35,723 applications and completed 34,064 cases. It made 926 referrals — roughly one for every 39 applications received.

Of the appeals heard following a referral — 884 of them — 622 were successful, 243 were upheld (meaning the conviction or sentence stood), and 19 were abandoned by the applicant.

Read those two sets of figures together, because they pull in different directions. Getting referred is hard. Of the referred appeals heard so far, 622 out of 884 have succeeded — which is what you would expect from a body that only refers where it has already identified a real possibility.

What the figures cannot do is tell you anything about any individual case, including this one. Roughly one in four referred cases heard has ended with the conviction or sentence upheld.

What this means for you

A referral is not the same as being cleared. If a relative's case is referred, that is a significant step — but the Court of Appeal still has to decide whether the conviction is unsafe, and in roughly a quarter of heard cases it has decided it was not. Mr Bailey's appeal has not been heard. Nobody knows the outcome, and that includes the CCRC.

The CCRC normally needs you to have appealed first. One of its opening checks is whether you have already tried to appeal. If a direct appeal was never attempted, that is the first question to sort out rather than assume around — see appeal time limits.

"New" is the whole game. The case above turned on a witness saying materially different things at two different hearings — something a jury had never had the chance to weigh. If there is nothing genuinely new in your case, an application is unlikely to get past the early stages, and we would rather say that plainly than encourage a two-year wait for a no.

Inconsistent witness evidence across hearings is worth looking for. Where someone has given evidence more than once — a retrial, a linked case, a later hearing — the transcripts do not always match, and comparing them is a practical thing that can be done. That is what our appeal review is for.

Expect it to take a long time. From application in April 2024 to referral in September 2026 is about two years and five months, and that is a case the Commission decided to refer. Anyone promising you a quick CCRC outcome is not being straight with you.

If you have a Provisional Statement of Reasons. You have 28 days to respond, and that is your chance to put whatever you think the Commission has missed. It is a real stage in the process rather than a formality.

An honest assessment of whether there is anything new in a case — new evidence, or a new argument that was never run — is the single most useful thing before a CCRC application, not after one has already been refused.

We cannot tell you the CCRC will refer your case, and nobody honest can. What can be done is a proper read of the trial papers, the transcripts and any earlier appeal against what the Commission actually requires, and a straight answer about whether there is something new there.

Talk to us

Case Review UK carries out independent written case reviews by senior UK lawyers and barristers, including CCRC application guidance. Fixed fee, no hourly billing, written report in 7 to 14 days. See how it works.

WhatsApp +44 7417 361696 or email enquiries@casereviewuk.co.uk. Send us the paperwork and we will tell you honestly whether there is anything worth reviewing.

This article is general information about the CCRC and a referral it announced on 18 September 2026. It is not legal advice on any individual case, and nothing here is a comment on the merits of Mr Bailey's appeal. Case Review UK provides independent written document reviews; we are not a firm of solicitors, we do not act for you in court, and we are not a substitute for a solicitor.