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scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 526

The Guardian reports today that an urgent review has been ordered into criminal convictions where DNA evidence is involved to discover whether there are long-serving prisoners who are victims of miscarriages of justice.

Richard Foster, chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), told the paper he believes there are as many wrongly convicted people in prison now as there were in the 1970s and 80s.

As part of a new series, Justice on Trial, the Guardian carries a report on an analysis of the most renowned miscarriage of justice cases the country has seen in the past 30 years. It includes video interviews with some of the victims of the British legal system.

The leader page examines the role of the CCRC in the light of continued difficulties in identifying those who have been wrongfully convicted and the length of time they can languish in prison.

"Although the CCRC is much better than the nothing that preceded it, it is still inadequate. The process to trigger a review can be an insurmountable hurdle, for whatever the law says about the right of appeal, other factors intervene. A prisoner's illiteracy, a lack of access to lawyers, or simply ignorance of the rules can all stop people getting fair treatment ...

"Even when they are corrected, miscarriages of justice remain terrible personal tragedies ... compensation is no substitute for the support that the wrongly convicted need. But above all, uncorrected miscarriages of justice corrode respect for legal institutions. As a society we are finally learning that it is less damaging to admit mistakes than to pretend that they never happened. Nothing enhances justice more than the rigorous pursuit of error."

'It's like being buried alive'

Since the 1980s and 90s a flow of miscarriage of justice cases has undermined public confidence in the criminal justice system. John Kamara, Paddy Hill and Sean Hodgson describe their experiences of wrongful conviction

WARNING: This video contains strong language from the outset

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2009/may/05/miscarriages-of-justice

DNA search for miscarriages of justice

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politic...miscarriages-justice-dna-evidence

The head of the organisation that investigates alleged miscarriages of justice has ordered an urgent review of cases where DNA evidence is involved to find whether there are long-term prisoners whose innocence could now be scientifically proved.

The decision comes as one of the country's leading civil rights lawyers claims that there are now as many miscarriage of justice victims behind bars as there were in the 70s and 80s.

Richard Foster, the chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), told the Guardian that developments in the gathering of scientific evidence have implications for cases dating back many years. He has asked the Crown Prosecution Service to review all such cases.

"Progress in science means you are able to go back and revisit cases – Sean Hodgson [released earlier this year having served 27 years for murder after his innocence was proved through DNA testing] is a very good example of that," said Foster, "But scientific understanding and certainty can actually shift – in cot deaths, for example – and you can also get the issue of the correct understanding of scientific evidence. You need to be sure it's been explained properly to the jury."

Considering whether there are other Sean Hodgsons in the prison system, he said: "We have started a review of our cases to check that out and I have written to Keir Starmer [the director of public prosecutions] asking him to check."

Foster was speaking on the eve of the launch of a new series on the Guardian's website, Justice on Trial, which will look at alleged miscarriages of justice.

He also said he wanted to reach the many prisoners who may be illiterate, inarticulate or with learning difficulties and who may be unaware of how to claim their innocence. "What we know about most people in prison is that they have quite limited education. Many of them can't read or write," he said. Currently, the CCRC requires prisoners to write to them, something many of them may be unable to do. "We also know that the prisons are under considerable pressure," Foster added, "so I want to investigate whether there are ways to make it easier for people who want to approach us to do so."

Foster believes there may be others who, like Sean Hodgson, confessed to crimes they did not commit. "We are understanding better that you do get people who, for psychological reasons, confess to things they didn't do. That has just reinforced us in the view that, if you've got a case that turns largely on confession evidence, you've got to look very carefully at it."

The number of applications to the CCRC, which has the power to refer cases back to the court of appeal, remains fairly constant at about 1,000 a year. Of these, only 2.7% were successful last year, the lowest proportion ever. Foster said that was "a blip" and the figure this year is 4.1%.

Campbell Malone, the lawyer whose work largely led to the release of Stefan Kiszko, said he believed there were a large number of innocent people in prison. "I believe we have a government that is positively hostile to the notion of miscarriages of justice," he said. "It would seem to be of the view that it would be better for the odd person to spend their life in prison for a crime they did not commit than to have the inconvenience of it being exposed." He added that there were "just as many" such cases now as in the 70s and 80s.

The cases that first prompted serious concern involved the Birmingham six and the Guildford four, both during a period when the IRA was active in Britain. Foster said there were similar concerns today. "Where there is intense pressure – public, political pressure – in a particular case and around terror, there is always the risk that safeguards that should be in place won't be applied as they should be," he said.

"You have always got to pause if someone continues to say they're innocent, either when they're in prison or, more pointedly, if they're in prison and ruling themselves out of early release because they're not acknowledging their guilt. I think any sensible person is going to pause on that and say – well, why?"

Foster said he did have "3am moments" as to whether one of the 95% of applications that are screened out and not reinvestigated by the CCRC might be a miscarriage of justice. "I worry about that – and anybody who works in criminal justice who doesn't ought to think about whether they made the right choice of career."

Miscarriages of justice: Project innocence

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment...09/may/05/miscarriages-of-justice

There could be as many wrongly convicted people in prison today as a quarter of a century ago, the Guardian reports today. Richard Foster, the head of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, might not agree, but he acknowledges that after Sean Hodgson's 1982 conviction for murder was quashed in March, on the basis of DNA evidence not available at his trial, many other cases might need to be re-examined. As he also acknowledges, the CCRC is facing a financial squeeze that will make it even more challenging to investigate properly claims of wrongful conviction that come in at the rate of 1,000 or more a year. It is a grim picture that underlines the need for the Guardian's new Justice on Trial series of investigations into claims of miscarriages of justice that is launched this week.

The CCRC, set up in 1997, was a proud achievement of the new Labour government. It was a long-overdue recognition that, as human institutions, the police, the court system and the Home Office are capable of getting it wrong, and not always accidentally - and that what matters is an effective mechanism for restitution. Although the CCRC is much better than the nothing that preceded it, it is still inadequate. The process to trigger a review can be an insurmountable hurdle, for whatever the law says about the right of appeal, other factors intervene. A prisoner's illiteracy, a lack of access to lawyers or simply ignorance of the rules can all stop people getting fair treatment.

Foster aims to tackle some of this: he wants prisoners to have easy access to guidance on the CCRC. But when the prison population continues to rise and the proportion of prisoners with mental illness rises with it, the task is hard. Restrictions on legal aid mean the prosecution is often better funded than the defence (and now solicitors are being asked to compete for contracts to represent defendants in order to drive costs down further). The CCRC needs funding to ensure that it really can fulfil its original purpose.

Even when they are corrected, miscarriages of justice remain terrible personal tragedies. In today's paper Gerry Conlon describes his two breakdowns, an attempted suicide and a struggle with addiction following his release after 15 years in prison, wrongfully convicted of the Guildford and Woolwich pub bombings. Others have equally miserable tales to tell. Compensation is no substitute for the support that the wrongfully convicted need. But above all, uncorrected miscarriages of justice corrode respect for legal institutions. As a society we are finally learning that it is less damaging to admit mistakes than to pretend that they never happen. Nothing enhances justice more than the rigorous pursuit of error.

Justice on trial: an opening statement

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/05/justice-on-trial-introduction

Nearly 50 years ago, Cyril Connolly wrote that "the test of a country's justice is not the blunders which are sometimes made but the zeal with which they are put right". He was writing long before the events that were to lead to some of our most notorious miscarriage of justice cases – the Birmingham six, the Guildford four, Stefan Kiszko – but what he said then holds just as true today.

We have just been very powerfully reminded by the case of Sean Hodgson, finally released after 27 years in jail for a murder he did not commit, that such cases will be always with us. The recent charging of 13 police officers and former officers as a result of the wrongful conviction of the Cardiff three is a further signal that the issue is a live one.

For this reason, we are launching Justice on trial, the aim of which is to highlight cases about which there may be major concerns. We aim to examine cases that merit reinvestigation and to report on developments in those on their way through the criminal justice system.

There are already many excellent projects, campaign organisations and sites in existence, and we refer to them in our directory section on the main page. If there are any that we have missed out – and there almost certainly are – we would be grateful for any information on them.

To mark the launch we have made a short film on the issue. In it, three innocent men, Sean Hodgson, John Kamara and Paddy Hill, tell our legal affairs correspondent, Afua Hirsch, of the horrific damage that a wrongful conviction can cause.

Two other films, both about individual cases, will appear on Justice on trial shortly. We have an archive of Guardian articles on individual cases. Suggestions for cases that we should investigate, contributions to the debate on the issue and comments are very welcome and should be addressed to justiceontrial@guardian.co.uk.

Full Coverage on Justice on Trial. Many articles on this link

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/series/justice-on-trial