Big Wullie
Joined: 25 Apr 2007
Posts: 1149
Location: Glasgow
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 Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:04 pm Post subject: Billy Mills Wrongly Identified For Robbery |
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This case in todays news bring home to me my own case again for two reasons:
1. He was wrongly Identified twice.
2. There were police involved.
Lord Gills comment that without the DNA to clear Mr Mills his case was still based on dodgy evidence (Two Identifications)
| Quote: | | He said: "It is a matter for concern that an important part of the prosecution was two police officers, neither of them eye witnesses, who made positive statements that the appellant was the robber on the basis of looking at CCTV stills." |
A dangerous Basis for a prosecution Says Lord Gill:
| Quote: | | Lord Gill said yesterday: "Even without this new evidence this was a prosecution that stood or fell by eyewitness identification alone. That is a form of proof that has been shown to be, in some cases, a dangerous basis for a prosecution, as history shows. |
The two Identifications in my case are described as: Unreliable by the Judge and the other had number 2 out his mouth before turning to view the Line-Up
In actual fact the biggest cause of Miscarriages in the world has been shown to be Wrongful Identifications Lord Gill
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news...onviction-quashed-86908-21266487/
Man wrongly jailed for robbing bank has conviction quashed
Apr 9 2009 By Jack Mathieson
Billy Mills Image 2
A MAN jailed for a bank raid he did not commit said yesterday "a little" of his faith in justice was restored after appeal judges quashed his conviction.
Rough justice victim Billy Mills had been jailed for nine years for robbing an RBS branch near his home in Partick, Glasgow.
He spent a "horrible" year behind bars with some of Scotland's toughest prisoners, including a spell on remand.
But he finally clinched his freedom yesterday, a fortnight after the Record exclusively revealed new DNA evidence had proved his innocence.
Crown lawyers said they would not seek to support the conviction after genetic fingerprinting linked the crime to a jailed South African robber.
Speaking outside court afterwards, an emotional Mr Mills, 42, said: "I am just delighted to be found innocent of a crime I never committed.
"It has taken two years of my life, but I am pleased for myself, my partner and my family. Now I just want to get on with my life, which has stood still since I was convicted.
"I spent around a year in prison in total. I had never been in jail before and it was horrible being locked up 23 hours a day. I thought 'this can't happen to an innocent person'."
Mills said he had been left with "no faith" in the justice system when found guilty, but his new defence lawyer Liam O'Donnell, who took on his appeal, had helped restore it "a little".
He said: "I always had to hope this day would come. When the DNA result came back I was ecstatic." Mills said he would be speaking to his lawyer about compensation, but added: "I just wanted to get the appeal over and done with first."
Mills was jailed in August last year after he was found guilty of carrying out a gun raid on the Royal Bank of Scotland branch at 280 Dumbarton Road, in Glasgow.
A masked robber pointed a handgun at staff and customers and demanded cash before getting away with £8216 during the raid in May 2007.
A jury at the High Court in Glasgow convicted Mills on a majority verdict, but he was freed on bail in February pending his appeal.
Fresh evidence emerged after new DNA analysis was carried out on a small plastic door stop recovered at the robbery scene.
There was found to be a one in 540 million chance of it coming from someone other than SouthAfrican serial bank robber Michael Absalom.
The Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Gill, said at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday that the "new evidence confirms all of our reservations about this conviction. We agree that there is clearly reasonable doubt."
Concluding that there had been a miscarraige of justice, he said it was "a matter of concern" that a key part of the prosecution case against Mills was two police officers identifying him as the robber from CCTV stills.
Absalom was called as a defence witness at Mr Mills' trial and was given a warning over self-incrimination by the trial judge Rita Rae QC.
He confirmed he was currently serving a sentence for bank robberies using a gun.
He confirmed his accent was South African, but chose not to answer questions over the raid on the RBS branch.
Former events manager Absalom, 38, was jailed for eight and a half years last year for robbing an American Express office in Hope Street, in Glasgow, and an RBS branch in Troon, in Ayrshire.
Lord Gill said yesterday: "Even without this new evidence this was a prosecution that stood or fell by eyewitness identification alone. That is a form of proof that has been shown to be, in some cases, a dangerous basis for a prosecution, as history shows.
"There was no forensic evidence of any kind against the appellant. The robber's face was partially masked."
The Lord Justice Clerk, who heard the appeal with Lord Eassie and Lord Philip, said only one eyewitness had made a positive, confident identification of Mr Mills.
He said: "It is a matter for concern that an important part of the prosecution was two police officers, neither of them eye witnesses, who made positive statements that the appellant was the robber on the basis of looking at CCTV stills."
Lord Gill said there was also the evidence of Absalom, who had committed similar crimes, spoke with a South African accent and was of a height that fitted in defence experts assessment of the size of the offender, and declined to answer questions at the trial.
The Lord Justice Clerk said: "The new evidence confirms all of our reservations about this conviction."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7992062.stm
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/87648...gow-man-cleared-of-armed-robbery/
Depite the veidence of his Innocence he was still prosecuted and wrongly Identified by Two Police CCTV operators
His partner and two children had Guns Pointed at their heads for nothing, What a shocking indictment on our Scottish Police Force
An Extended Interview with Billy Mills can be seen here:
http://video.stv.tv/bc/news-billy-mills-ext-int-090409/
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