Defendants acquitted of murder face the chance of being retried under new legislation to be tabled this week.

Prosecutors will be able to take cases to the Court of Appeal when new and compelling evidence — such as DNA — emerges after a not-guilty verdict has been returned, Attorney General Kim Wilson told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

Prosecutors have long complained that under the current law they're unable to reopen trials such as the botched Becky Middleton case, even when fresh facts have come to light.

Sen. Wilson said the new law would not be retroactive — meaning it will only apply to cases going forward.

"Effectively what's being proposed is that if an individual or individuals were tried for murder and were acquitted, or found guilty of a lesser offence, or the case was discharged, where new and compelling evidence has come to light, the Director of Public Prosecutions will be able to appeal to the Court of Appeal for a decision on whether the case can reopen," Sen. Wilson said. "The Court of Appeal could then consider whether the case will go back to the Supreme Court."

Campaigners have said the Becky Middleton and Kellon Hill cases have highlighted flaws in Bermuda's justice system.

Becky Middleton was found dying at a remote spot in Ferry Reach, St. George's, on July 3, 1996, having been raped and stabbed while on vacation from her home in Canada.

Anger over Bermuda's judicial system has been expressed home and overseas by the fact that no one has been brought to justice for the slaying.

Jamaican Kirk Mundy and Bermudian Justis Smith were arrested days later; Mundy was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of accessory after the fact before forensic tests were complete, and was jailed for five years. When new evidence later emerged, allegedly linking Mundy to the killing, the Privy Council rejected a bid by prosecutors to have him face a fresh charge of murder.

The murder case against Smith was thrown out before a jury had chance to consider it, by Judge Vincent Meerabux, who said there was no case to answer. The Privy Council later criticised him for this "surprising" and "perhaps astonishing" decision, saying there was strong circumstantial evidence.

However, it ruled the decision could not be overturned and a retrial ordered because in Bermuda there is no right of appeal by the prosecution following a finding by a judge of 'no case to answer' on the facts. The new legislation means that under similar circumstances the Court of Appeal would have the opportunity to reopen such cases.

And in the Kellon Hill case, Justice Charles-Etta Simmons, ruled that four of the five youngsters originally charged with murdering the 18-year-old should be discharged before the matter went to the jury last month.

She said after hearing the prosecution case that there was not enough evidence for them to have a case to answer.

The current law means there is no way those four can ever be retried no matter what evidence may come to light.

Sen. Wilson said she has spoken to United Bermuda Party MP John Barritt who has been pressing for law reforms similar to those proposed; she said the legislation will be tabled in the House of Assembly on Friday, adding: "It's taken a long time to get this far."

She said she was comfortable defendants' rights remain protected because the law states fresh evidence must be "new and compelling" in order to be brought before the Court of Appeal.