R v Wallace 1931.







famous as being the first occasion that a conviction for murder was overturned on the grounds that the verdict was "unreasonable, or cannot be supported, having regard to the evidence", as provided for by Section 4(1) of the Criminal Appeal Act 1907.






William Herbert Wallace, an insurance agent, had been convicted at the Liverpool Assizes in 1931 of the brutal murder of his wife, Julia Wallace, and sentenced to death.


law case notes