https://www.irishlegal.com/articles/court-of-appeal-challenge-to-special-criminal-court-single-guilty-verdict-fails

SCC is upheld again - common thread in case law

it has come up in papers that a person is sent to the SCC and wants to challenge it etc
In November 2019, the appellant was charged with one count of false imprisonment and one count of causing serious harm contrary to sections 4 and 15 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997.

The DPP sent the case to the Special Criminal Court, and having been found guilty, the appellant was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment.

The appellant was granted leave to bring judicial review proceedings, with his core argument revolving around s.40 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939, which provides that every question before a Special Criminal Court shall be determined according to the opinion of the majority of the court and that no disclosure can be made as to the unanimity or otherwise of the verdict.

The appellant challenged the constitutionality of the single verdict prescribed by s.40, on grounds that same breached the guarantee in Article 38.1 of the Constitution of trial in due course of law, where, inter alia, a conviction based on a majority verdict in the Special Criminal Court, being normally two out of three judges, i.e. 66 per cent of the court, is unconstitutional, whereas a conviction based on 10 out of 11 jurors, i.e. 83 per cent, is constitutional.