This item first appeared on the F.A.C.T. website on 10th February 2005
Members of INNOCENT, the Manchester-based group of families and friends of miscarriage of justice victims reacted angrily to Tony Blair’s apology to the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven.
They were very pleased for these eleven victims and their families. What miscarriage of justice victims want above all, more than any amount of compensation, is an apology. But so do all the other numerous miscarriage of justice victims.
Chairperson of INNOCENT Ann Craven addressed the following personal message to Tony Blair, reflecting the feelings of the whole group:
“How dare you apologise to these eleven people and not for my son who suffered a miscarriage of justice and spent time in one of your prisons, after having his conviction quashed by the Courts of Justice he was denied any compensation or help nor an apology from any government department, the trauma we as a family went through was not different than the said above. The trauma my son went through being in prison for a crime he had not committed was terrible, he still has not fully recovered from the time he spent in prison, he also has flashbacks, but will he get any help from you or an apology, I DON’T THINK SO. Because he is not political and you have nothing to gain by apologising to him as he is neither Irish nor American, only English.
“What of the other miscarriages of justice that have happened in this country by the government system? Kevin Callan who has died - if he had help when his conviction was quashed he might be alive today so you don’t have to apologise to him, but his family who suffered could do with an apology. Will they get one? I DON’T THINK SO. Because they also are not political.
“Also will Graham Huckerby who has just had his conviction quashed by the Courts of justice, get an apology from you? I DON’T THINK SO. Because he is not political.
“There is a long list of miscarriages of justice but will you bother with any of them? I DON’T THINK SO. Unless they are political and you need to cultivate favours, you will not bother at all.”
Dr Michael Naughton, who lectures in law at Bristol University, added:
“Any acknowledgement from Government that innocent people are wrongly convicted by the criminal justice system is welcome. We invite the Prime Minister to engage in a serious dialogue about the inevitability of innocent people being wrongly convicted and the difficulties they face in trying to overturn their wrongful convictions through the existing mechanisms.
“When convictions are quashed it is because the previous criminal conviction is 'unsafe' not because the wrongly convicted are innocent. So we wait to see if the Prime Minister's apology represents a shift in criminal justice process and a more meaningful debate about the wrongful conviction of the innocent and the possibility of judicial recognition of the problem.
“ By singling out an individual case from 30 years ago the impression is that wrongful convictions are rare and exceptional. This runs counter to the fact that since 1986, for example, when the Police and Criminal Evidence Act came into force, and we were told that there would not be any more miscarriages of justice, there have been over 85,000 successful appeals against criminal conviction in England and Wales, or around 25 successful appeals a day - indicating that 'justice in error' is a routine feature of the criminal justice process.
“We agree that the apology to the Guildford 4 and Maguire 7 will help those individuals to move forward with their lives and give them a certain finality about their miscarriages of justice.
“The problem is, though, that it only exacerbates the harm to other victims. I have already had Paddy Hill from the Birmingham 6 and Mike O' Brien from the Cardiff Newsagent 3 on the phone and their question is: where are our apologies? They want to know if the Government believe them to be guilty!”
Dr Andrew Green, co-founder of INNOCENT, said:
“Tony Blair’s apology might appear to suggest that the government is sympathetic to miscarriage of justice victims, and that it is opposed to wrongful convictions. But the record suggests otherwise.
“The prison service throws exonerated prisoners out on the street without money to live on, while his officials have even forced victims to pay for board and lodging while they were wrongly imprisoned.
“This government’s legislation, such as restrictions on rights to disclosure of the results of police investigations, can only increase the number of miscarriages of justice. Ministers have argued for a reduction in the rights of defendants, so that the police can more easily obtain convictions against those they think are guilty – inevitably leading to more miscarriages of justice.”