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Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1152 Location: Glasgow

Keir Starmer QC, who is now the director of public prosecutions, told the programme: "Simon Hall's case is really peculiar because there is no particular reason to believe he is guilty of this offence.

Does this mean his appeal has a better chance of success ?

Does this mean Starmer will not contest this appeal then ?

Keir Starmer actually wrote a good book on Miscarriages here:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?i...EwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Angeline

kevin donald · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 198

Proposed changes would abolish double jeopardy

CHANGES that would allow people to be tried twice for the same offence have been welcomed, amid reports that a new prosecution could be brought in a notorious murder case.
Prosecutors are understood to be preparing fresh charges against convicted serial killer Angus Sinclair for the World's End pub killings in Edinburgh in 1977. The case will be brought in the wake of expected changes to the law that will see the double jeopardy rule abolished in Scots courts.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/l...s-would-abolish-double.5847337.jp

Birmingham Six: 35 years on from injustice

Thirty five years ago, the IRA murdered 21 in the Birmingham pub bombings. Six men were jailed for crimes they did not commit, and spent 16 years in jail before their convictions were quashed. But how was life on the outside? Jonathan Owen talks to Johnny Walker

As blows rained down on Johnny Walker's stomach during a brutal beating at the hands of the police, he realised that in saying almost nothing, he had still said too much. "They were beating me up and my shirt came open and I told them I had stomach ulcers, so all the punches went down there... I should have shut my big mouth," he says, his voice quavering.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news...rs-on-from-injustice-1826180.html

Angeline · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 148

Did anyone see the Panorama programme on joint enterprise last night?

The one thing that struck me immediately is that, essentially, just "being there" can get people convicted - the argument at one point was that by being a bystander, rather than intervening, a person is as guilty as the perpetrator of the crime.

Funny how it doesn't work the other way though - police officers who know that their colleagues are breaking the rules, or who collude with them to do so, are not guilty of joint enterprise.

"Experts" who quite deliberately slant their reports to fit with the official line, and their colleagues who apparently agree with them, even if their reports fly in the face of all of the evidence - not guilty of joint enterprise.

Defence teams who fail to properly check their client's case details, and fail to properly represent them (the equivalent of standing by and doing nothing) - not guilty of joint enterprise.

Yet every time these things happen, lives are destroyed. Double standards? Well, of course!
_________________
As long as one heart still holds on, then hope will never really be gone

kevin donald · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 198

Tragic story of murdered transsexual, whose uncle was one of the Guildford Four

THE tragic life story of a murdered Kentish Town transsexual became clear this week when it was revealed the victim's mother had committed suicide four years ago and her uncle spent 15 years in prison falsely convicted of an IRA bombing.

Destiny Lauren, 29, born Justin Samuels, was found dead at around 1am on Thursday November 5, in her flat on Leighton Crescent.

It was almost four years to the day since her mother Elizabeth Hill took her own life outside the same flat.

http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/content/...20Nov%202009%2016%3A32%3A18%3A477

Man’s ‘relief’ at quashing of 1976 terror conviction

A man who was the victim of a miscarriage of justice 30 years ago has told of his relief at having his conviction overturned.

Peter Joseph McDonald from Co Londonderry was just 16 when he signed a confession in police custody for an alleged shooting he says he never committed.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk...6-terror-conviction-14578111.html

Holding the police to account

Alan Johnson refers to the case of Sean Hodgson as someone wrongly convicted who would "probably not have been cleared without DNA analysis" (My DNA dilemma, 25 November). This may well be true, but it has nothing to do with the debate over DNA retention. Hodgson wasn't cleared because the police had been storing the DNA of large numbers of innocent people. He was cleared because he insisted the police match his DNA to that taken from the crime scene. Using Hodgson's case to justify the retention of innocent people is exactly the kind of specious argument that the DNA retention debate doesn't need.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politic...tention-g20-police-accountability

Andrew Adams loses compensation battle

WRONGLY convicted Andrew Adams, who spent 14 years in jail for a murder he says he did not commit, lost his battle for more than £1m compensation at the Court of Appeal today.

But the judges involved in the case agreed to hold a further hearing next week to give Mr Adams’ lawyers the chance to apply to take the case to the Supreme Court.

Today, former aircraft engineer Mr Adams, 39, of Newcastle, said: "We now want to take the case to the Supreme Court, the House of Lords.

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/b...mpensation-battle-72703-25269657/

Guje · Joined: 29 May 2007 Posts: 26 Location: Sweden

Article about Annie in today's Sunday Mail. Below the online edition, feel free to make comments.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news...-daughter-s-death-86908-21859229/

Bereaved mum hopes mystery stalker holds key to daughter's death
Nov 29 2009 Marion Scott, Sunday Mail

DROWNING victim Annie Borgesson's mum believes she may soon find a stalker who holds the key to her daughter's death.

Swedish student Annie, 30, was found washed up on an Ayrshire beach on December 4, 2005, in what police say was a suicide.

But her family refuse to accept that and fear she was being stalked by a man impersonating Scotland rugby star Martin Leslie.

Annie believed she had struck up a friendship with Leslie but it later emerged that the rugby player was abroad at the time in question.

Annie's mum Guje, 56, said: "We now know that this man was not the real Martin Leslie.

"But the Leslie family have been very supportive.

"They have given us the name of a man they believe may be the mystery stalker targeting Annie.

"My daughter was frightened by the behaviour of this man who approached her on a number of occasions just before she died."

Guje added: "It will soon be four years since Annie died, and we're still no nearer knowing the full truth. I've met Alex Salmond and written to the justice secretary to beg him to have a proper public inquiry.

"If this stalker had anything to do with what happened to Annie, we need to know."

FoolsGold · Joined: 07 Sep 2009 Posts: 15

With so many movie stars in the area, the LAPD has a threat assessment unit that deals with stalkers, impersonators and those who send threats to movie stars.

Do the various UK police agencies maintain such units? A soccer star might have had prior nutcases writing to him or impersonating him.

In the USA many such impersonators fail to bear the slightest resemblance to the sports figure that they impersonate, but often a woman in a bar that the impersonator is trying to pick up is not really familiar with the actual appearance of the sports figure.

It should be relatively easy to track down hotels or pubs that got "stuck" with tabs they let the celebrity-impersonator run up. It might also be rather simple to track down other women who had been approached by the impersonator at or about that time.