shirleymckie.myfastforum.org

allan mcleod · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 88

Kevin Mcleod Case.

There is a 2 page article in this weeks April 10-16 addition of
"The Big Issue", entitled - ROUGH JUSTICE.

Quest for truth - Despite a police apology, Kevin McLeod's family are still in the dark over their son's tragic death after 10 years of torment.

The Fight Continues.

allan mcleod · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 88

Reporter Marion Scott from the Sunday Mail is to do an article this weekend regarding the family of Kevin Mcleod and their latest response from the Scottish Government in relation to the familys campaign to close this loophole whereby police officers retire with their full pension rights prior to disciplinary action. In Kevins case 3 high ranking officers jumped ship. This occurs all to often in Scottish forces when officers find themselves being faced with criminal charges including culpable neglect of duty.

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 550 Location: Glasgow

Brendan Dixon is to have a hearing at Privy Council.

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/..._team_casts_doubt_on_evidence.php

Interesting how Crown try to claim the evidence was available at time of trial, but they refuse to release it now.

Just what is the problem

allan mcleod · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 88

DAILY RECORD - KEVIN MCLEOD CASE.

The Daily Record is to publish a two page article on Wednesday 16 July in relation to Kevins Death and Scottish Police Officers retiring and not being held accountable for their actions, of which the Scottish Government is currently proposing new Guidelines to close this loophole.

My family has campaigned for a change to regulations since the retirement of former Deputy Chief Constable Keith Cullen in 2003.

kevin donald · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 88

If its not bad enough having to visit an Innocent man in prison the Scottish Justice system treat us like criminals too.

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/...dnews/display.var.2427189.0.0.php

WHAT NEXT MY DNA? WHICH I WOULD GIVE IF ALL HAD TO GIVE IT.
THEN STRATHCLYDE POLICE WOULD BE ABLE TO TELL WHO'S DNA THEY FOUND AT THE MURDER SCENE IN GALSTON AND CATCH THEM.

kevin donald · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 88

Nat Fraser. from Sunday Mail.

http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/...n-bid-for-freedom-78057-20717735/

kevin donald · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 88

Scotland on Sunday.

Al-Magrahi.

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman....-declares-innocence-on.4466710.jp

Sunday Herald.

MOJO Scotland.

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/...s_probe_over_sheridan_support.php

kevin donald · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 88

What a shambles our Justice system is in, Mr Beggs clogs up court time while the rest wait .

A JOKE.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news...ce-to-fellow-cons-86908-20728343/

THIS MAN IS MAKING A MOCKERY OF JUSTICE IN THIS LAND.

kevin donald · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 88

The Independant.

'It's better that 10 guilty men go free than one innocent man be wrongly convicted'

Judges should order more retrials over unsafe convictions, says criminal review chief

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Saturday, 27 September 2008

Independent.co.uk Web

The country's top appeal judges are failing to correct miscarriages of justice where they suspect the jury has come to a wrong verdict, the head of the body charged with investigating wrongful convictions has warned.

Professor Graham Zellick, the outgoing chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), said the Court of Appeal should order retrials in cases that have a "lurking doubt" about the safety of the conviction.

In an interview with The Independent, Professor Zellick also called on judges to prevent "very dubious" expert evidence, including lip-reading and ear-prints, being presented to the jury. He argued: "It is far better that 10 guilty men go free than one innocent man is wrongfully convicted ... We know from bitter experience that juries get things wrong. The Court of Appeal ought to be more active in quashing convictions even though there has not been any irregularity in the trial process."

He added that when he had raised this argument with members of thejudiciary he had been "admonished" for asking judges to second-guess the jury. "They tell me that in this country we have trial by jury, so who are they to go behind the verdict of the jury which has seen all the evidence? Well, I say we have trial by judge and jury, not just jury."

Professor Zellick, pictured below, who has been in charge of the commission's referrals to the Court of Appeal for the past five years, said a more interventionist approach would allow the court to order a retrial when judges were unhappy about the safety of a conviction. "The Court of Appeal is even more reluctant in 2008 than in the 1990s to quash convictions because they think they are unsafe. We are more deferential to a jury now than in the 1990s when things were going wrong," he said.

Professor Zellick, a professor of law at University College London, cited the wrongful conviction of the solicitor Sally Clark, 42, as an example of the consequences of judicial reluctance to free immediately an innocent victim of a miscarriage. Mrs Clark was jailed in 1999 for killing her 11-week-old son Christopher in December 1996, and eight-week-old Harry in January 1998. An appeal in 2000 failed, but she was freed in 2003 after a fresh appeal following a referral from the CCRC. She was found dead last year. "Sally Clark should never have been convicted," said Professor Zellick. "She should have succeeded at her first appeal. It should never have taken two years' work by us [CCRC] and a referral before she was released, by which time she was broken in mind and body." The jury at her trial was told by an expert witness, Professor Sir Roy Meadow, that the probability of two natural unexplained cot deaths in a family was 73 million to one. Other experts said the odds were about 200 to one. Although not criticising the standing of the expert witnesses in the case, Professor Zellick said juries were not always capable of deciding between diverse expert opinions. "There have been miscarriages of justice caused by experts whose expertise is somewhat suspect. We are too casual about expert evidence in the criminal justice system." He said he was particularly concerned about lip-reading and ear-print evidence, which he described as "very dubious" for a jury.

Case study: Sally Clark, Innocent mother spent years in jailExpert evidence Cause for concern
The tragedy of the case of Sally Clark, who died last year after finally being cleared of killing her two baby sons, was exacerbated by the failings of the criminal appeals process. The 42-year-old solicitor spent nearly four years behind bars. By the time the Criminal Cases Review Commission had intervened and sent the case back to the Court of Appeal, Mrs Clark was already a broken woman. Her suffering, believes Professor Graham Zellick, the retiring head of the commission, could have been relieved earlier if the Court of Appeal had taken a more interventionist approach the first time around. Instead of waiting to see compelling new evidence, Professor Zellick argues that the Court of Appeal should quash convictions where they simply believe the prosecution's case has not been proved.

Robert Verkaik

*Lip reading

In a case currently at the CCRC, prosecution evidence turned on the lip-reading testimony of an expert witness who interpreted what was being said in a silent video. During a review of the evidence, it was discovered the video had sound. An ensuing transcription of the conversation bore no resemblance to what the expert witness had claimed.

*Earprints

Mark Dallagher, 30, spent nearly seven years in jail protesting his innocence after an Old Bailey jury was told by an expert, a Dutch police inspector, that earprints found at a murder crime scene matched his exactly. After the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial, a DNA sample from the earprint proved it was not Mr Dallagher's.

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 48 Location: Glasgow

I came across this article. wondering why Scotlands FOI act doesnt seem to cover this kind of info for us, and in cases where disclosure is so badly needed.

Rowan Walker, The Observer, Sunday September 28 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/28/police.ukcrime

More than 800 police officers across England and Wales have been arrested in the past two years for a range of offences, including assault, drink-driving, rape, paedophilia, fraud, drugs charges and child cruelty. The number represents a tiny percentage of serving officers, but the range of offences will surprise many.

Documents obtained from 29 of the 43 forces in England and Wales under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that, between April 2006 and August 2008, 812 officers were arrested.

Sir Ian Blair, combating allegations of racism at London's Metropolitan Police, faces further scrutiny after it emerged that more than 300 Met officers were arrested in the period, including 123 for violence against the person and 17 for sexual offences.

A spokeswoman for the Association of Chief Police Officers said new misconduct regulations coming into force from 1 December are expected to improve the disciplinary system.
David Lindley, deputy chief constable of Leicestershire and Acpo spokesman on performance and conduct regulations, said: 'The police service expects good conduct and probity from its officers and staff at all times, and when we fall below that high standard we will investigate. The figures should be seen in the context of the overall number - just over 140,000 - of police officers, the overwhelming majority of whom serve the public with dedication. They also demonstrate that police officers are treated no differently to other people when wrongdoing is alleged.'
Source for this message:
The Observer, Sunday September 28 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/28/police.ukcrime
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