This article has been extracted from the Guardian Website here Legal watchdog warns budget cuts will damage justice Ministry’s proposals to reduce criminal legal aid budget by £220m is ‘unfair in principle’ and ‘risks undermining quality’ Depriving defendants of the ability to choose their own solicitor will undermine confidence in the criminal justice system, an [...]
Criminal Cases Review Commission – better the devil you know? – Halsbury’s Law Exchange
February 18, 2013 from Leave a Comment
The Halsbury Law Exchange have published an article titled “Criminal Cases Review Commission – better the devil you know?” which discusses various opinions about the efficacy of the CCRC following the Governments call for evidence as part of a series non-departmental triennial reviews. The triennial review is part of the Coalition’s much-trumpeted “bonfire of the [...]
CCRC Triennial Review Update
February 5, 2013 from Leave a Comment
Update from the Ministry of Justice I am writing to inform you that stage one of the triennial review of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is now complete. The Call for Evidence, which concluded on 14 December 2012, provided 65 responses, which have now been collated and analysed. The evidence has supported the continuation [...]
Court of appeal quashes convictions of five men for murder
January 10, 2013 from Leave a Comment
This is an extract of an item which appears on the Guardian website on 8th Jan 2013 The court of appeal has quashed the murder convictions of five men convicted of a gangland killing after hearing of failures to reveal potentially crucial evidence to the defence. The five men were serving life sentences totalling a minimum of [...]
Ministry of Justice to conduct a review of the CCRC
October 25, 2012 from Leave a Comment
The Ministry of Justice have issued a Media Release (copied below) stating the Criminal Cases Review Commission is to be subject to a Triennial Review. The review will run from 19 Oct 2012 to 14 Dec 2012 The review team is seeking evidence from a wide range of bodies and would particularly welcome hearing from applicants (current, [...]
Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) has referred the conviction of Wullie Beck back to the Scottish High Court.
September 14, 2012 from Leave a Comment
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) has referred the conviction of Wullie Beck back to the Scottish High Court. The conviction is not yet queshed but this is an important milestone in his quest for justice for himself and his family. Wullie Beck was convicted of armed robbery more than 30 years ago. The [...]
Prisoner who has spent 16 years in prison for a crime he says he did not commit may soon be freed
August 7, 2012 from Leave a Comment
The following article by Gywn Topham appeared in Guardian Online on Wednesday 18 July 2012 Part of Wakefield prison, Yorkshire, where Victor Nealon is serving a discretionary life sentence. Photograph: Gareth Copley/PA A man who has spent almost 16 years in prison for a crime he always denied committing may soon be freed after DNA traces [...]
Issue 5 of INQUIRY: The newsletter of the Innocence Network UK is now available
July 4, 2012 from Leave a Comment
Issue 5 of INQUIRY: The Newsletter of the Innocence Network UK is now available here This issue is a ‘Symposium Edition’, featuring selected papers given at the INUK Symposium on the reform of the CCRC. We hope you find the content informative. You can see a useful film about the innocence project here
Historic Abuse case referred to Court of Appeal by the CCRC
May 25, 2012 from Leave a Comment
QualitySolicitors Jordans have issued the following Press release Criminal Cases Review Commission Refer QualitySolicitors Jordans Case The CCRC have referred the case of JD to the Court of Appeal on the basis of his convictions being unsafe. This is a further case in a series of Historical Care Home Appeals investigated by Mark Newby Solicitor Advocate [...]
Sam Hallam released after seven years in prison
May 20, 2012 from Leave a Comment
This article by Sandra Laville, crime correspondent appeared here on the Guardian website on 17th May 2012 Sam Hallam became one of the youngest victims of a miscarriage of justice on Wednesday when the court of appeal released him after he served seven years for murder. Hallam, 24, emerged with his mother on to the steps [...]
Claims of Innocence: An Introduction to wrongful convictions and how they might be challenged
May 8, 2012 from Leave a Comment
Claims of Innocence -an Introduction to Wrongful Convictions and how they might be challenged. Written by Michael Naughton, it is an excellent booklet which addresses the problems faced by those who have had their appeals turned down by the Court of Appeal. It is now available for download on the INUK website as a free-to-download PDF here
Pressure mounts for reform of CCRC
April 14, 2012 from Leave a Comment
Excerpt from The Times 12 April 2012 – report by Mark Gould. Is the justice system’s safety net failing?; Experts demand improvements to how Britain corrects wrongful convictions, Nobody can understand the desperation of injustice – it’s all-consuming and never goes away,” Susan May said, concluding a speech detailing her near-20-year battle to overturn her conviction for [...]
Criminal Cases Review Commission must be reformed, say campaigners
March 27, 2012 from Leave a Comment
Innocent people wrongly convicted of serious crimes are being routinely failed by the body set up to investigate miscarriages of justice, according to lawyers and campaigners. They will call this week for urgent reform of the Criminal Cases Review Commission – set up in the wake of high profile miscarriages of justice including the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four [...]
Dramatic developments in the Eddie Gilfoyle case – ‘murdered’ wife’s secret diary found 16 years late
January 8, 2012 from Leave a Comment
A secret diary that could have cleared a convicted murderer was held by the police for at least 16 years while he remained in jail, protesting his innocence. Eddie Gilfoyle was jailed for life in 1993 for murdering his pregnant wife, Paula, by hanging her and making it look like suicide. The Times newspaper has [...]
Launch of new centre for criminal appeals
October 1, 2011 from Leave a Comment
This article by Jon Robbins appeared on the Guardian website (here) on Monday 26 September 2011 Convicted of robbery in 1970, Tony Stock is still trying to prove his innocence Photograph: Tony Stock I was witness to an unusual reunion this week, between the former solicitor-general Vera Baird QC, defence lawyer Glyn Maddocks and a 73-year-old [...]
Guardian reports on alleged failures by the Criminal Cases Review Commission
June 6, 2011 from Leave a Comment
This article by Jamie Doward first appeared on the Guardian website (here) on the 29th May, 2011 The watchdog that examines miscarriages of justice is failing innocent people, according to a senior lawyer involved in some of the highest-profile court cases in recent years. John Cooper QC, honorary visiting professor of law at Cardiff University, [...]
Criminal cases review commission: the last bastion of hope
April 1, 2011 from Leave a Comment
There is a useful article on p13 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Wednesday 30 March 2011 titled Criminal Cases Review Commission: the last bastion of hope which can be read here
Court clarifies ‘real possibility test’ in CCRC referrals
February 10, 2011 from Leave a Comment
Morris, R (on the application of) v Criminal Cases Review Commission [2011] EWHC 117 (Admin) (07 February 2011) Thiscase relates to a claim for Judicial Review brought by Raymond Morris (the Claimant) challenging a decision of the Criminal Cases Review Commission dated 21 June 2010 declining to refer his case to the Court of Appeal [...]
CPS to established a specialist Appeals Unit that will take on new cases in the appeal courts, including all work involving the Criminal Cases Review Commission
January 31, 2011 from Leave a Comment
CPS opens specialist Appeals Unit Media release : 26/01/2011 The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has established a specialist Appeals Unit that will take on new cases in the appeal courts, including all work involving the Criminal Cases Review Commission and Unduly Lenient Sentences. Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said: “The CPS is [...]
January 9, 2011 from Leave a Comment
There is a very good article by Safraz Manzoor in todays Guardian about about the setting up of Innocent Projects in the UK. The article is titled The Innocence Project: the court of last resort. Well worth reading.
Set up to investigate miscarriages of justice, the CCRC’s poor track record in recent years shows it is little more than a fig leaf
November 30, 2010 from Leave a Comment
Bob Woffinden: Set up to investigate miscarriages of justice, the CCRC’s poor track record in recent years shows it is little more than a fig leaf When it was set up in 1997, the Criminal Cases Review Commission was an experiment. It was an idea unique in worldwide criminal justice: an extra-judicial body that could [...]
New evidence may clear postman of sex attack after 14 years in jail
August 26, 2010 from Leave a Comment
A man who has been in prison for 14 years for attempted rape may have the conviction overturned after it emerged that crucial forensic evidence had never been tested. Further doubt has been cast on the conviction of postman Victor Nealon by a neurosurgeon, who says that the prisoner could not have had the distinctive [...]
CCRC critical of Innocence Projects
February 12, 2010 from Leave a Comment
Why ‘safety in law’ may fail the innocent – the case of Neil Hurley Michael Naughton, director of the Innocence Network UK, replies to claims the Criminal Cases Review Commission is a ‘champion of justice’ David Jessel, a Commissioner and senior spokesperson at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) recently argued that it is “a dangerous [...]
Book Release: Dr M Naughton. The Criminal Cases Review Commission: Hope for the Innocent
December 17, 2009 from Leave a Comment
Dr Naughtons much acclaimed book The Criminal Cases Review Commission: Hope for the Innocent was published on the 29th November and launched at the House of Commons on the 16th December. Publisher: Palgrave McMillan Introduction with synopses of the chapters ‘Michael Naughton’s timely and authoritative book comprehensively destroys the myth that the central mission of the [...]
Wrongfully convicted engineer cleared by Court of Appeal eight years after conviction
May 8, 2009 from Leave a Comment
An engineer who said his career was derailed by a wrongful conviction for fraud eight years ago was cleared by the court of appeal yesterday. The case of 36-year-old Patrick Zengeya had been referred back by the Criminal Cases Review Commission as a potential miscarriage of justice. The court of appeal ruled that the failure [...]