My Lawyer F*cked Me

Big Wullie · My Lawyer F*cked Me

Taken from the firm here:

http://www.firmmagazine.com/featu..._lawyer_f%2Acked_me%E2%80%9D.html

The following case highlights the pitfalls of Identification Evidence and the need for Crown to implement a braking system.

27 Jul 2009
“I didn’t do it, my lawyer f*cked me”
So goes the memorable line from cinema’s greatest tale of the innocent man in prison. It couldn’t happen here, could it? As Liam O’ Donnell explains, it already has, to the innocent he found in Barlinnie jail who became his client, and whose tale illustrates an alarming trend in criminal justice.

The case of Billy Mills, whose conviction for armed robbery was quashed in April, raises a disturbing question about the entire criminal justice process. Whilst theoretically solid, the case suggests that, rather like the culture at NASA that let a vehicle known to be a death trap be dispatched into orbit, killing all on board, the criminal process has become so riddled with norms, complacency, habit and unquestioning routine that an obviously innocent man could spend over a year in jail.

Mills’ innocence is beyond doubt, yet somehow, from the very inception of the police investigation into an armed robbery that took place in May 2007, all the way through to Mills’ appeal against his conviction - which was refused- the machinery of the Crown’s prosecution system was incapable of being directed off its pre-determined path. The police maintain at senior level that even the prosecution of the most mundane minor offence cannot be halted once commenced, and the Mills case suggests that this juggernaut mentality has hardened into a dangerous culture which has the potential to railroad innocents all the way to jail despite evidence –in Mills’ case- so thin that it failed even to convince the Advocate Depute pressed into prosecuting the case.

“Two policemen identified him as someone they had dealings with in minor incidents.That’s enough to get you to a jury,” says Liam O’Donnell, who took on Mills’ case after he had been remanded in custody to Barlinnie, despite having no previous convictions.

“He was then ID paraded before 24 witnesses, and aside from the police, two others identified him, one of whom, an older man, Mills had once lived in the same street as. Out of 24 potential IDs, no one identified him for the crime he was accused of. On the face of it though, that’s four IDs, which in Scotland makes for a pretty strong case. Once the Crown have a legal sufficiency, it tends to go to court.”

A known armed robber, south African Michael Absolom had pled guilty to two armed robberies carried out in the area at the same time using the same method, and was charged with two more. Absolom was ultimately called as a witness for the defence case during Mills trial.

“A lot of the witnesses very clearly said the robber had either an Eastern European or a South African accent,” says O’ Donnell.

“The accent was always something I thought should have been looked at more closely. One of the bank tellers had lived in South Africa, and knew the robber was Afrikaaner. You would have thought that would have given cause for concern. There was a phrase used by the robber, “Give me money” repeatedly, not expressed in the way a Scottish person would say it. I have now read Michael Absolom’s case papers. The Crown have decided not to prosecute him because he is doing eight years for armed robbery and is going to be deported at the end of his sentence. In those cases, the similarities were incredible, the accent, the phrase “Give me money”. I am surprised that nobody put the two together.”

Liam O’Donnell is reluctant to criticise any aspect of the Crown conduct, noting that they proceeded on the basis of securing a legal sufficiency of evidence. But the relentless inevitability of the process, apparently unstoppable despite Mills’ innocence, suggests a deeper issue at the heart of Crown practice.

“It shows the weakness of identification evidence. This was a worrying case from a citizens point of view. If you or I or a member of the public are put in front of 24 witnesses, if two of them identify you, you are going to court,” O’Donnell says. Indeed, white males aged 18-40 already fit the description of the majority of criminals in Scotland. As Arnot McWinnie told the Firm once, the most powerful weapon the Crown have is the reading out of the indictment
“There is an assumption that they have got the right man. I always think there is a great assumption within the criminal justice system that if you are in the dock, you must be guilty. The defence are three goals down before the game starts. If you are on a jury and the charges are read to you, and you look at the man sitting there between two officers, your automatic starting point is, “there’s the man right there”. It takes a fair bit of shifting. The Mills case shows that.”

The most surprising sting in the case is that DNA evidence was left by the perpetrator of the Mills robbery that did not belong to him. When O’Donnell tested it against Absolom, it matched, with only a 540 million to one probabilty it was not his. Yet even then, Mills’ leave to appeal was refused.

“We were refused leave to appeal because the DNA wasn’t ‘fresh’ evidence, because it was available at the trial. It was quite incredible. When I got that letter through, I literally couldn’t believe it. Thankfully the Crown took the position that they were no longer supporting the conviction, and accepted that they had the wrong man. Then the appeal court made it quite clear the conviction was unsafe.

“I’m surprised none of the police officers involved in the case knew of the ongoing prosecution of a robber with a South African accent, committing robberies in an identical fashion at an identical time of the morning. Is it blinkers? The Scottish way is to let the jury decide, if it is at all debatable.

“Something went wrong. William Mills was very fortunate that Mr Absolom left his DNA at the scene of the crime. I’d like to think that maybe internally they will have a look at this case and work out what did go wrong. Something clearly did.”

The problem appears to rest in an ingrained culture of presumption of guilt, which needs urgent correction. The public need the wheels of justice to turn efficiently. We also need them to be able to brake.

Thank God for Lawyers Like "Liam O’Donnell"

Pity my own Lawyer (Jim Keegan) never possessed the basic skills needed to see two Identifications were wrong in my case, and evidence capable of attacking it should have been called, including a Forensic Report, and a Lawyer who said the Police had number two out his mouth before turning to view the Parade.

scotkaz

Many miscarriage of justice victims have been known to the police previously for something or another. Just because someone has committed a crime previously does not automatically mean they are guilty of everything they are accused of. It is lazy police work and lazy so called investigations that lead to these miscarriages of justice. And Perhaps they think no one will care about someone being wrongfully convicted if they have been naughty boys in the past.?

The fact that the accent was picked up by several of the witnesses yet ignored is appalling.

Then there is the fact that they had the real robber as a witness against this man, who was a known robber, in fact had been charged with another robbery using the same method and in the same area, is even more disturbing to me.

Seems to me that Mr Mills was selected and no matter what they would make their evidence fit even when it wouldnt.

Thank God for the DNA and yes Thank God for lawyers like Liam O'Donnell.