‘Failure to disclose vital evidence is the biggest single cause of miscarriages of justice and the problem is getting worse, the outgoing chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has said.’
The Guardian, 11th October 2018
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Government funding of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the last hope for people battling miscarriages of justice, has come under attack as the number applications rises steeply.’
The Guardian, 9th September 2018
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A man at the centre of one of the UK’s longest alleged miscarriages of justice is making a fresh bid to clear his name after a legal fight spanning more than four decades.’
BBC News, 12th July 2018
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A group of prominent lawyers claim the official body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice is not fit for purpose.’
The Guardian, 30th May 2018
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The wrongly convicted are abandoned by the state. This week, the supreme court has a chance to change that.’
The Guardian, 9th May 2018
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The fairness of the criminal courts process goes on trial this week when two men who spent a total of 24 years wrongfully imprisoned seek compensation for their ordeals.’
The Guardian, 7th May 2018
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The unlawful imprisonment of people for council tax non-payment “is likely to be one of the largest mass miscarriages of justice in British history”, the chair of the Criminal Bar Association, Angela Rafferty QC, and 57 other signatories of a letter to The Guardian have claimed.’
Local Government Lawyer, 27th March 2018
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The scale of the disclosure crisis facing the criminal justice system has been laid bare, after a survey found that half of all lawyers were now running into problems on a daily basis and a third saying they believed it had resulted in wrongful convictions.’
Daily Telegraph, 27th February 2018
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Police wrongly pursued a rape case against a retired fire chief rather than investigate a blackmail claim against the fantasist who made the allegation, the Telegraph can disclose. David Bryant, 67, spent almost three years in jail after being convicted of rape in a miscarriage of justice that further plunges into crisis the police handling of sex abuse cases. Mr Bryant’s conviction was overturned in the Court of Appeal and now a High Court judge has raised serious questions over a police force’s failure to investigate his accuser.’
Daily Telegraph, 10th February 2018
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Today we take it for granted that anyone convicted of a crime should be able to appeal to a higher court. However, this wasn’t always so. English lawyers traditionally set great store in the deterrent value of swift and final justice. Over the course of the nineteenth century, reformers pressed for the establishment of a court that could review sentencing and order retrials on points of law or new evidence. These advocates of change met with fierce resistance from the judiciary and much of the legal profession, and the cause of reform had little success until a spectacular miscarriage of justice came to light.’
OUP Blog, 21st January 2018
Source: blog.oup.com
‘Police forces are failing to meet the official standards for forensic science, making miscarriages of justice inevitable, the government’s forensic regulator has said. In her annual report, Gillian Tully highlighted her growing concerns about the failure of some forensic firms used by the police to meet basic quality standards. It means innocent people could be wrongly convicted and offenders escaping justice.’
The Guardian, 19th January 2018
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The High Court has admitted up to 17 people in England and Wales were unlawfully sent to jail for not paying their council tax last year – but it refused to accept this constituted “systematic failings” by the courts.’
The Independent, 17th January 2018
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘A man who served eight months in a youth jail for stealing mailbags in the 1970s has had his name cleared.’
BBC News, 17th January 2018
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A police doctor has warned of potential miscarriages of justice in rape cases after medical examinations were outsourced to the private security company G4S.’
Daily Telegraph, 20th December 2017
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘He was one of the last two men hanged in Britain. A habitual liar convicted of murdering a man who had been his friend, and perhaps his lover. But according to a leading criminal lawyer, who has viewed documents uncovered by the BBC, he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.’
BBC News, 18th December 2017
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Two men who were wrongly convicted of carrying out the Birmingham pub bombings in 1974 have supported calls for the alleged bombers to be named publicly to end a “double injustice”.’
BBC News, 6th December 2017
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Lawyers acting for the man convicted of murdering Lin and Megan Russell in Kent in 1996 say they have new evidence of his innocence, including a “very detailed confession” to the killings from serial killer Levi Bellfield.’
The Independent, 29th November 2017
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘I am very grateful to the Criminal Cases Review Commission for asking me to join you this morning to reflect briefly on your first twenty years of service to the rule of law and cause of justice. As I am first to speak may I thank Linklaters on your collective behalf for their generous hospitality without which this event would not be taking place. It is particularly poignant for me to be here because, as some of you know, I was junior counsel to the May inquiry into the convictions of the Guildford Four and Maguire family and so whilst not quite the midwife to the birth of the Criminal Cases Review Commission was one of those in the delivery room. You have a fascinating day ahead of you and I am only sorry that pressing commitments elsewhere will force me to leave, rather rudely, as soon as I have finished speaking.’
Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, 3rd November 2017
Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk
‘The collapse of a trial of police officers accused of framing innocent men for murder collapsed due to human error, not corruption, an official report has concluded.’
The Guardian, 18th July 2017
Source: www.theguardian.com
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