‘This is a derisory document’. Thus, Professor Roger Smith described the MoJ’s paper on Transforming Legal Aid, when he gave evidence to the Select Committee for Justice last Tuesday. The more…

‘Lawyers are at the heart of many cases of the wrongly accused and wrongly convicted: wrong, shoddy, lazy representation. It is a recurrent theme. It should haunt us.’ Gareth Peirce, more…

The global public loves to read about savage slayings. The tragic death of the innocent may help sell newspapers but manhunts, police chases, arrests and then the judicial process is more…

Campaigners for Colin Norris, the former nurse jailed for the murdering of four patients, are claiming to have new evidence that challenges the safety of his conviction, undermines the original more…

‘It seems to be very difficult for the Court of Appeal and the CCRC to accept that some lawyers themselves who conduct trials are responsible for wrongful convictions; to put more…

You may by now have started to hear rumblings that lawyers are not happy. You may not have paid very much attention, thinking that it was probably just lawyers concerned more…

The Ministry of Justice has denied reports that it is planning the ‘wholesale’ privatisation of the courts, reports Louise Asquith. The Times reported yesterday that the government was considering releasing more…

The proposed plans of Chris Grayling, secretary of state for justice, are causing for the first time in legal history a united front between barristers and solicitors. This united front more…

It’s a decision they will probably regret but after the publication of the consultation document Transforming legal aid, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) apparently thought it would be a good more…

Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four and Breeda Power, daughter of Billy Power of the Birmingham Six, together with the families of Jean Charles de Menezes and Alfie Meadows, led more…

There is something deeply suspicious going on. I was struck the other day how the Ministry of ‘Justice’ no longer seems to carry the strapline of its predecessor, the Department more…

The legal and social issues that surround sexual offences are complex and, by their very nature, dependant upon their own particular facts, writes Mark Barlow and Mark Newby. The protection more…

EVENT: JUSTICE fundraiser 12 Angry Men at the ICA. ‘Jury service enlarges one’s sense of self,’ argued Baroness Helena Kennedy QC on Monday night, following a fundraising screening for JUSTICE more…

In the midst of the attack on legal aid, the plans for price competitive tendering and Save UK Justice campaigning, it is important that as lawyers working to preserve the more…

Chris Grayling’s probation reforms have achieved their primary objective: namely, to make Mr Grayling a member of the Government people have heard of. He has achieved headlines that Malcolm Tucker, more…

On-the-spot fines were once reserved for minor procedural issues such as parking or failing to have a train ticket, writes Josie Appleton. Josie Appleton (below) is director of the civil more…

Last month there were two important and successful judicial review challenges to the systems used by police authorities to disclose and retain personal data and information. In response to the more…

APPALLING VISTAS: Chris Huhne, the former cabinet minister jailed for eight months for perverting the course of justice, has found his experience of prison so far ‘fascinating‘, according to the more…

INTERVIEW: Michael Turner is fired up. He has just delivered a speech to a jury at Guildford Crown Court, and the sleet is lashing down outside as he sits in more…

Alfred Moore was ostensibly a poultry farmer living with his wife and four young children at a small holding known as Whinney Close Farm, at Kirkheaton, a small village on more…

Many notorious miscarriages of justice, such as the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six, occurred when suspects were denied access to solicitors and were coerced into making false confessions, writes Hannah more…

Theresa May has agreed to act after a High Court ruling outlawing the Home Office policy of treating 17-year-olds in police custody as adults and denying them protections enjoyed by more…

There is nothing wrong with trying to cut costs and save a few quid, especially if your bank balance is a bit on the rocky side. But, as with everything more…

  Appalling Vistas:  It’s appalling that the state should ever have funded poor people to go to law, writes Francis FitzGibbon QC. It’s appalling that foreigners who’ve lived in the UK more…

  There is no longer any credible doubt that the Cardiff Five are innocent, but they always were, writes Satish Sekar. Satish Sekar is a journalist who has specialised since more…

On 4 April, a matter of days after the cuts to civil legal aid were brought into effect, Chris Grayling has announced the Government’s intention to cut legal aid for more…

There are proposals to limit the advice given to persons arrested in the police station to a duty solicitor, as opposed to allowing them to request their own solicitor. I more…

INTERVIEW: James Saunders is one of the lawyers representing the Hillsborough Family Support Group. He speaks to Oliver Lewis. Oliver Lewis is a higher court advocate with 20 years’ experience as more…

Perhaps it isn’t surprising that many criminal defence lawyers are wary of journalists, writes David Rose. David Rose is special investigations writer for the Mail on Sunday and a contributing more…

There once was a shepherd boy, let’s call him for argument’s sake Chris Grayling. He became bored as he sat on the hillside watching the villagers try to make sense more…

Writing this, it is difficult to know what identity I should use, writes the Chief Legal Ombudsman Adam Sampson. Half a lifetime ago, I used to be a probation officer in more…

‘I hate to imagine how many children there were who complained of molestation or who were or knew they would be, if they did complain, subjected to corporal punishment of more…

In the week since Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce were given prison sentences for perverting the course of justice there has been an upsurge in interest from both media and more…

George Davis, a professional criminal and armed robber was at the centre of one of the highest profile miscarriage of justice cases of the post-war era, writes Brian Williams. Brian more…

WRONGLY ACCUSED: Show me a miscarriage of justice and, nine times out of 10, I will show you the blueprint that caused it, writes Eric Allison. Eric Allison is the more…

Consider these two distinct wrongs, with largely different sets of victims – but which share some common ground. One is: being sexually or violently assaulted, especially by someone more powerful more…

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, today has delivered a speech calling for a national consensus on the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases suggesting that the more…

It was inevitable, and perfectly understandable, that the piece ‘Poor Defence’, written by Maslen Merchant for the Wrongly accused: who is responsible for investigating miscarriages of justice? collection of essays more…

It is fascinating that at a time when the Justice Secretary has called for householders to be permitted to tool up against burglars and use disproportionate force, international news is more…

Under the proposed reforms of probation service, is there an opportunity for a charitable or voluntary organisation to supervise and re-habilitate ex-serviceman who have offended? asks Philip Newman. Philip Newman more…

Juries in criminal trials frequently ask questions after they have retired, writes Mark George QC. These usually seek clarification from the judge as to the directions of law he has more…

You can now search some 2.5 million criminal records going back as far 1770 online at the National Archives. Click HERE to search Pic credit: findmypast.co.uk/National Archive. It shows the more…

Juries in criminal trials frequently ask questions after they have retired, writes Mark George QC. These usually seek clarification from the judge as to the directions of law he has more…

Thanks to Tony Blair’s pathetic desire for a place in history as a defender of the western way of life and his consequent decision to take the UK into a more…

Legal systems lie in the vulnerable position between the rock of justice and fairness and the hard place of workability and social control. Defence lawyers may be motivated by the more…

I am told that sex education isn’t compulsory in English and Welsh schools. It would seem it is the same for members of our Cabinet too if Chris Grayling’s recent more…

Earlier this month defence lawyers called on its members to cite examples of ‘outrageous non-charging decisions where in the past on any sensible basis someone would have been put before more…

Gang injunctions – dubbed ‘Gangbos’ – came into force in February 2011 under the Policing and Crime Act 2009, writers Brigid Baillie. They are designed to stop ‘gang related violence’ more…

Blaming over-zealous police or irresponsible prosecutors for miscarriages of justice makes for a simple and straightforward narrative, writes Daniel Newman. As with most things, though, the reality is more complicated, more…

Barry George, wrongly convicted of the murder of BBC TV presenter Jill Dando, has lost a bid for compensation, ruled the High Court today. Three other people whose convictions had more…

More than a century ago, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used the columns of the Daily Telegraph and other publications to campaign for the exoneration of George Edalji wrongly convicted on more…

Locking people up is easy. Getting them out, so that they don’t come back to prison is much more difficult and the one thing that continues to challenge the system more…

ESSAY: The Special Patrol Group is arguably the most controversial unit in the history of British policing, writes Brian Williams.  From 1973 to its replacement in 1986 the unit became more…

PROFILE: Chris Grayling, made history recently as the first non-lawyer to be appointed Lord Chancellor. So far he has not so far disappointed, writes Matt Evans. The rightwing, populist justice more…

REVIEW: The Cardiff Five tells the story of a miscarriage of justice in which five innocent men were arrested, charged and initially held in prison for the murder of Lynette more…

For over four decades Tony Stock protested his innocence and fought to overturn a conviction for his part in the brutal robbery of a Tesco store in the Merrion Centre more…

This is the question now facing the Divisional Court following Mr Justice Hickingbottom giving permission to bring a challenge to the government over the new provisions which came into force more…

Most presume that the job of a defence lawyer ends when a magistrate or foreman of a jury announces that the defendant is guilty, writes Ian Brownhill. Or, when that more…

The abolition of the Indeterminate Sentence For Public Protection (IPP) has finally been brought into effect. As of today (Monday 3rd December) the relevant part of the Legal Aid Sentencing more…

To be a cheerleader or a critic? As the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) faces a review of its own, this is the question for us all, writes Mark Newby. more…

Two Newcastle fans in their late teens are watching their team play, writes Amanda Jacks. An equalising goal is scored and thanks to a surge of jubilant supporters – they more…

In England and Wales, the age from which children can be arrested, detained at police stations and questioned as part of an investigation is 10, writes Harriet Balcombe. This is more…

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) ruled in Abu Qatada’s favour on one point only: if he is deported to Jordan, where he faces trial for terrorist offences, there is more…

Earlier in the year, there was widespread reporting of the story of (in the words of the Daily Telegraph) the ‘Homegrown’ British terrorist bride jailed over Jewish plot’. Mr and more…

‘Taxpayers’ money’, ‘greedy lawyers and a ‘hook-handed extremist’, with ingredients such as these the tabloid story writes itself. And so it did, in the Daily Mail, concerning the ‘nearly £680K’ more…

ESSAY: Metropolitan Police Commander Peter Spindler described the Savile Case as a watershed in abuse investigations praising the media and the victims for exposing the scale of the abuse by more…

Many still argue that prison for profit is wrong in principle but the debate is over as jurisdictions across the world seek ever cheaper solutions to their obsession with incarceration, more…

ANALYSIS: It might be assumed watching an appellant being released from the Court of Appeal that he or she will be compensated by the state for being wrongfully convicted and more…

‘We should treasure what happened in Liverpool. The families and indeed the public have faith in this,’ says Michael Mansfield QC of the Hillsborough Independent Panel and its ability to more…

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) recently announced that it will investigate the way in which the South Yorkshire Police handled the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster – writes Mark more…

On February 27th 2012 a new drug guideline came into effect which reduced the sentences for those who were genuine drug mules considerably, and also for the first time encouraged more…

ESSAY: Bent for the Job:  A short history of police corruption and miscarriages of justice 1963 to 1990, by Brian Williams. Brian Williams (below)  is a Police Constable of nine more…

There is an unjustifiably little known text book called Miscarriages of Justice: a review of justice in error. Its editors were the esteemed Professor Clive Walker and (then) junior barrister more…

Getting away with murder – how police misconduct let a killer get away. The Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) was one of the most significant pieces of legislation more…

Mr Trenton Oldfield only stopped the Boat Race for 20 minutes while he baptised himself in the Thames to protest against the evils of capitalism. He achieved a brief fame. more…

A few weeks ago I wrote on the JusticeGap a blog about the Howard League for Penal Reform’s latest campaign, writes Lucy Russell.  The Howard League’s U R Boss project, more…

PCC elections: ‘A ‘relentless focus’ on cuts will be the number one priority for would be voters in the Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) elections. In one month’s time, voters more…

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) last month held unanimously that three prisoners who received IPPs in 2005 with tariffs of two years (Brett James), 12 months (Nicholas Wells) more…

Regulation of the police station stage of the criminal process by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and the PACE Codes of Practice is rightly regarded as a major more…

Forgive my cynicism but after 35 years of defending in criminal cases and watching the endless chipping away at the rights of defendants I smell a rat and feel a more…

A 2011 study by the Children’s Commissioner for England raised concerns about both the quality and variation in standards of care for young offenders with mental health issues, writes Kim more…

ANALYSIS: The evidence is clear: householders already have all the burglar-bashing rights they could wish for, writes Gordon Darroch. Elsewhere on the JusticeGap, you can read Mark George QC on more…

Almost his first act as justice secretary and already it’s clear that non-lawyer Chris Grayling neither understands the law on the use of force by householders against intruders nor does more…

Chris Grayling, in his first speech as justice secretary today, is expected to give an indication as to where his priorities might lie by calling on all community sentences to more…

ANALYSIS: ‘They see the judge as being very fair to them. Even when he’s locking them up which he tries not to. This is the first court I have ever more…

PHOTO ESSAY: I met Bruce (15) and his partner Amy (17) as they were sleeping on the floor of a house in Market Town. Bruce went to the same high more…

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced that it will issue guidance on criminal charges for people who posting abusive comments on social media networks following homophobic tweets about Olympic more…

ANALYSIS: In 2002 the Court of Appeal rejected 15 grounds of appeal presented by Jeremy Bamber in a challenge to his 1986 conviction for the murder of 5 members of more…

Yesterday the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) made a judgment on the case of James, Well and Lee v. the United Kingdom – one current and two former IPP more…

As people digest the report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel it should come as no surprise that it is the South Yorkshire Police who are embroiled in a disgraceful attempt more…

This weekend I was  surprised to see a well-respected human rights commentator expressing concern about a news report failing to mention the full details of a man’s conviction for causing more…

PHOTO ESSAY: This is Amy – she is 17 years’ old – after a dispute with her mother five months ago over a desire to visit her father (serving 12 more…

A five year old girl, Thusha Kamaleswaran, was shot through the spine and paralysed from the waist down for life, in March 2011. She was in her uncle’s shop in more…

Patrick Harris was born on August 13th 1998. He was the son of Lorraine Harris and Sean Maguire. They lived with two daughters of Lorraine from a previous relationship. After more…

Paul Chambers has been cleared by the High Court. No surprises there really – can you think of anyone who thinks (or at least has gone public to say they more…

This week a jury acquitted PC Harwood of the manslaughter of Ian Tomlinson at the 2009 G20 protests. It was widely reported – for example, in the Evening Standard and more…

ANALYSIS: Following the 2003 Home Office White Paper Respect and Responsibility: Taking a Stand Against Anti-Social Behaviour, and the 2008 Green Paper Engaging Communities in Criminal Justice, a greater emphasis more…

Would you like the basic defence package, the standard package or the superior package? As of October this year that’s a question you will have to answer if you face more…

‘Blairism led to 21 criminal justice bills in 13 years,’ said justice secretary Ken Clarke on the Andrew Marr show last February  - and he didn’t mean that as a more…

REVIEW: Ken Clarke, the Talleyrand of early 21st century British politics, took part in a public ‘conversation’ with Roger Smith, the director of JUSTICE, on 10th July, writes Francis FitzGibbon more…

ANALYSIS: Are we heading for another summer of discontent, writes Kim Evans. Judging by a report recently published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the police’s use of more…

When the investigative journalist David Jessel heard in 1999 that Channel 4’s Trial and Error would be axed on the grounds that miscarriages of justice ‘are a bit 80s’, he more…

‘We’re back where we were in the late 1980s,’ argued Campbell Malone, the veteran defence lawyer and miscarriage of justice campaigner at a debate in Manchester last week.  ‘We have more…

John Massey, 64, escaped from Pentonville prison in Islington at around 6.30pm on Wednesday 27th June using a makeshift rope. Pentonville houses up to 1,250 category B and C male more…

‘Members of the jury …expert evidence shows the witness was sexually abused …..well maybe not … .’ That is the question that vexed the Court of Appeal in the case more…

The Appeal judges yesterday considered whether a person had made an ‘informed, voluntary and unequivocal waiver’ of their right to legal advice in a police station, writes Kim Evans. The Court of more…

My brother has just been handed a community sentence for a crime he committed last year, writes Kimberley Tew. Even though all of his friends and family have known about more…

The Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP) was first implemented in 2005 following its introduction under the Criminal Justice Act of 2003. The purpose of this sentence was for it more…

ANALYSIS: Just before 7pm on July 9th 2010 Anthony Frederick, a grandfather with no criminal convictions, was chatting to his neighbour in his own driveway, writes Sasha Barton, a solicitor more…

The Equality and Human Rights Commission reported this week that the police were 28 times more likely to use stop-and-search powers against black people than white people. You can read more…

Until a few years ago the phrase ‘miscarriage of justice’ was rarely heard in the Netherlands, writes Gordon Darroch. But a handful of high-profile cases have put the country’s justice more…

The number of court orders to evict squatters in London’s wealthiest  boroughs has rocketed by over 100% in the last 12 months. You can read about the government’s plans to more…

‘I thought it was a beacon of light which would ensure those wrongly convicted got justice.’ Susan May talking about the Criminal Cases Review Commission earlier this year. Despite the more…

It is a common misconception that only the Crown, government agencies and other public bodies can bring prosecutions.  Individuals also have the right to bring prosecutions privately when they have more…

‘Prison is a society. It felt at times like we were prisoners of war and that there was an enemy outside. Perhaps that enemy was the media.’ Lord Hanningfield speaking more…

The number of applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (the CCRC) is up this year from an annual total of a thousand a year to 1500. The first thing more…

ANALYSIS: Every criminal advocate knows that Crown Courts are ghost towns compared to a few years ago, writes Mark George QC. Many have suspected that the cause must be changes more…

ANALYSIS: I read with dismay the latest government proposals regarding the so called ‘streamlining’ of anti social behaviour orders (Asbos), and the proposed powers to put power to force the more…

Now here’s something to make you think, especially those who support the return of capital punishment in the UK. Yesterday the prosecution in the case of Sam Hallam announced in more…

Sam Hallam was freed on bail today after the prosecution said it would not oppose his appeal against the conviction. Pic: Sam Hallam leaving court today (Kim Evans) Read Kim more…

It is not often that I read something that makes my blood boil. When I do, it usually relates to some new proposal by our Government (of whatever political persuasion) more…

Defence firms ‘should make it clear to legal aid clients how their publicly funded status affects the service they get’, according to a leading solicitor advocate. ‘It’s a myth that more…

TICKETS AVAILABLE: As part of the Justice Gap, series we are teaming up for a second year with the Prisoners Advice Service to host their annual debate. You can read more…

‘My brother, Eddie Gilfoyle has just spent 18 years in prison for something he didn’t do. 18 years is a long time in prison if you are guilty. If you more…

ANALYSIS. Kim Evans on three important events looking at the investigation of miscarriages of justice in the last three weeks. ‘Whilst there are problems with the Criminal Case Review Commission more…

ANALYSIS: Michael Zander QC on whether the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) lives up to what the Runciman Royal Commission on Criminal Justice envisaged. This is a paper that Michael more…

ANALYSIS: Michael Zander QC on whether the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) lives up to what the Runciman Royal Commission on Criminal Justice envisaged. This is a paper that Prof more…

The number of people convicted of cruelty and neglect to animals rose by nearly a quarter last year, according to RSPCA figures announced today. You can read Dr Angus Nurse more…

ANALYSIS: Felicity Gerry considers how courts treat vulnerable defendants. Since the trial of Venables and Thompson where two children were tried in an adult court for the murder of James more…

ANALYSIS: The UK currently has the most privatised prison system in Europe, writes Michael Teague. Is privatisation the answer to our overcrowded prison system? Pic credit: Alberto. From April 2012, more…

GARETH PEIRCE: ‘It is not the first time in history that the Court of Appeal has been an impediment to cases being reopened. There have been battles in the past more…

The general public perception is that sentencing in this country is soft. It is not always clear how that viewpoint is to be reconciled with the fact that the prison more…

In July 2002 an 11-year old boy received a warning under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 from Greater Manchester Police. As might be expected given the punishment, it was more…

FEATURE: Kim Evans reports on the tragic death of a young father after a police chase. In the early hours of the 18th May 2008, 22-year-old Lee Lewis made a more…

Innocent people today are, perhaps, more vulnerable that they have ever been to being wrongly convicted because of a string of legislation that has lowered the burden of proof required more…

Cutting costs was damaging Crown Court cases, according to a report into the Crown Prosecution Service. Michael Fuller, chief inspector of Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI), warned that more…

No reasonable commentator would deny that the current system sometimes fails victims of miscarriages of justice. Nor would they deny that it is the duty of all concerned with miscarriages more…

As a police station advisor, there is nothing guaranteed to make my heart sink more than a client who needs an interpreter for their interview. You can read John Storer more…

There was a time when the sight of an envelope addressed to me in green ink, as though written studiously along a ruler’s edge, with each letter truncated in line, more…

Since I wrote about the Cardiff Three scandal yet more changes have taken place twisting the saga into a new beast.  Towards the end of January 2012 the missing, presumed more…

ANALYSIS: In the very same week that the BBC announced it was to axe Rough Justice, three Appeal Court judges quashed the murder conviction of a young man, whose wrongful more…

LATEST IN THE JUSTICE GAP SERIES OUT NOW: ‘Our system of criminal justice is not perfect,’ writes Mr Justice Sweeney in his introduction to a new collection of essays about more…

Improvements needed be made to police rape investigations, according to a new report out this week. The report by HM Inspectorates of Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service (Forging the more…

On Tuesday a report (Forging the links: Rape investigation and prosecution) by the Inspectorate of Constabularies and the Crown Prosecution Service was published looking at the recent review into rape more…

ANALYSIS. John Storer writes about the growing crisis enveloping  a controversial new contract to run court interpreter services. I live and work as a criminal defence lawyer in Boston, Lincolnshire, a more…

At 9.30am on Friday this week Christopher Tappin must report to Heathrow’s police station. Tappin (it was noted in this Saturday’s Times) makes ‘an improbable criminal’. Christopher Tappin is a more…

At first it was difficult to get people too excited about extradition.  It’s something that happens to other people, and anyway, if they didn’t want to be extradited then they more…

‘Society wants to know about prison life, an interesting place to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there.’ Frankie Owen, from The Little Book of Prison. You can read more…

Michael Teague asks why UK penal policy is so influenced by the American experience. ‘Our Europe-leading imprisonment rate appears positively puny compared to the USA’s muscular embrace of mass incarceration. more…

If we consider the development of criminal justice policy in the USA over the last 40 years, we might deduce that all that is needed to resolve every single criminal more…

The Forensic Science Service (FSS) is a Government-owned company. It provides services to police forces across England and Wales, together with other agencies such as the Crown Prosecution Service, British more…

The demonization of young women was leading to a failure to secure more convictions of suspected rapists, according to Alison Saunders, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service in London. more…

Alison Saunders, chief crown prosecutor for London Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), recently gave a speech relating to the prosecution of rape and serious sexual offences and hoped would spark debate more…

In the week that the Guardian published this interview with Alison Saunders, head of the Crown Prosecution Service, talking about ‘the demonisation’ of young women contributing to the failure to more…

Criminals are to be banned from making claims for injuries from a special fund set up to help victims of crime, according to the Guardian. Ken Clarke, the  justice secretary, more…

Missing documents that led to the dramatic collapse of a multi-million pound police corruption trial in the Lynette White case last month have resurfaced despite claims they were shredded. You more…

Last week Europe’s highest human rights court found that the UK’s ‘whole life’ tariff did not constitute inhuman or degrading punishment contrary to article 3 of the European Convention on more…

‘Today’s orthodoxy may be tomorrow’s outdated learning,’ reflected  Lord Justice Toulson when considering a case where the evidence of expert scientific witnesses was central to the case. Last month the more…

The closure of the Forensic Science Service (FSS) has caused ripples to run through the police service and create questions about the way that evidence may be dealt with in more…

The Innocence Network UK, an umbrella group for the university-based Innocence Projects set up by law students to investigate miscarriage cases, has  called for an overhaul of the CCRC and more…

Concerns are mounting over the closure of the Forensic Science Service scheduled for March 2012. In a letter to the justice secretary Ken Clarke, the Law Society predicted ‘a contraction more…

This week the Justice Committee published a report stating that the law on joint enterprise is so confusing for juries and courts alike that legislation is needed to ensure justice more…

As Dr Theodora Dallas begins her six month sentence for contempt of court, you may be wondering whether the principles of jury duty can survive in a world where information more…

Media and public reaction to the publication of the report of the Commons Justice Committee on 17 January 2012 on the joint enterprise law has been extensive. Those of us more…

The law on joint enterprise was ‘so confusing for juries and courts alike’ that legislation was necessary to ensure justice for both victims and defendants and end the high number more…

‘This was a deliberate act by Merseyside Police to frame me.’ So said Eddie Gilfoyle on BBC Radio 4′s Broadcasting House at the weekend. He was convicted in 1992 of more…

Explosive new evidence has been uncovered by The Times in the case of Eddie Gilfoyle, jailed for murdering his pregnant wife Paula. He was jailed for life in 1993 for more…

They always come good in the end, these miscarriages of justice, and – inch by excruciating inch – the case of Eddie Gilfoyle is nearing the point where the Criminal more…

I was a serving officer with the Metropolitan police in 1993 when I heard of Stephen Lawrence’s brutal murder at the hands of a gang of racist thugs. The Lord more…

The rule against double jeopardy was evidently already an ancient one when in 1716 William Hawkins said in his Pleas of the Crown, chapter 35, section 1: ‘That a man more…

Gary Dobson and David Norris were yesterday sentenced for their part in the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. Mr Justice Treacy sentenced them on the basis that theirs was more…

David Norris and Gary Dobson (left and right) have been ordered to serve minimum sentences of 15 and 14 years respectively for the ‘terrible and evil’ murder of the black teenager more…

FEELING FESTIVE? Season’s greetings from www.thejusticegap.com here. Check out Jules Carey’s blog and also read Citizen’s Advice’s Richard Dunstan’s blog.  Illustration: Sehb Hundal  

‘The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man: “You are more…

On 2nd October 2007, a 26 year old Polish care worker, Magda Pniewska, was walking home from the nursing home where she worked in south London.  As she was talking more…

Life in prison – as any number of accounts of prison life document – is often experienced as painful, humiliating, and negative. Yesterday two prisoners, who challenged the Ministry of more…

What Price Justice?  Convicting three men of murder in 1990… about £10m. Bringing the officers who caused three innocent men to be convicted of that murder to trial in 2011… more…

What Price Justice?  Convicting three men of murder in 1990… about £10m. Bringing the officers who caused three innocent men to be convicted of that murder to trial in 2011… more…

‘You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you more…

A teenager who exchanged fire in a gunfight leading to the death of a passer-by died has been found guilty of murder despite not firing the fatal shot. The Supreme more…

The Lord Chief Justice is the UK’s most senior judge and has particular responsibility for the administration of criminal justice in the courts. When he suggests that the ‘fiendishly difficult’ more…

Advances in neuroscience indicate the age of criminal responsibility – 10 years in England and Wales – might be too low, according to a study. The Royal Society report (Neuroscience more…

After five months of a trial costing ‘tens of millions of pounds’, the collapse of the biggest ever miscarriage of justice trial, involving eight police officers and two witnesses over more…

The biggest trial of police officers in British legal history collapsed after a judge ruled that they could not receive a fair hearing. Eight former police officers and two civilians more…

Anyone who kills another, often a loved one, out of an act of mercy, faces being prosecuted and convicted as a murderer and sentenced as such.  Recent guidance has been more…

Three years ago almost to the day, Kay Gilderdale helped her daughter to die. She didn’t want to, but her daughter had finally tired of her suffering, and so this more…

The most senior judge in England and Wales this week made the case for reform of ‘fiendishly difficult’ murder law. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge MPs urged to be more…

Bernard Hogan Howe, the newly appointed Commissioner of Police, has said that every police car should be equipped with tasers that can then be made more routinely available to police more…

I was disappointed, although not altogether surprised, to read yesterday that Stafford Scott and John Noblemunn have resigned from the IPCC community reference group. The three-man group was set up more…

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham has renewed calls for the officer who shot Mark Duggan to be suspended. Speaking in a House of Commons’ debate yesterday, Lammy said more…

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham has renewed calls for the officer who shot Mark Duggan to be suspended. Speaking in a House of Commons’ debate yesterday, Lammy said more…

Can you kill a burglar? A simple enough question, and one that regularly exercises the minds of politicians and the ruled alike. See here. To many, an Englishman’s home is more…

ADVICE GUIDE: Kim Evans on what you need to know if you are arrested – read it here. Around one and a half million people are arrested every year in more…

ADVICE GUIDE: Around one and a half million people are arrested every year in England and Wales. It can be a frightening experience. If you’ve had the misfortune to be more…

The Criminal Cases Review Commission is not the body we campaigned for. It never was. Most of us who, in the eighties, were concerned with miscarriages of justice had a more…

I was reading this really rather excellent blog by @_millymoo on the guff currently being spouted by our PM David Cameron on national adoption week. In her usual no-nonsense fashion, more…

The government, after a reportedly fierce cabinet battle, plans to extend the use of US-style minimum mandatory sentences into the British legal system. The proposals are part of the Legal more…

ANALYSIS: High profile miscarriage cases attract publicity because of corrupt police or dishonest or incompetent experts, writes Maslen Merchant; however, compare those relatively few cases with the number of cases more…

On September 15th 2011 the prime minister stood in Liberty Square in Benghazi and told the crowd of Libyans: ‘Your friends in Britain and France will stand with you as more…

Vincent Tabak is a violent sex obsessed murderer. That’s what the public think, what the jury decided and how the judge sentenced. He was convicted of the murder of Jo more…

My mum is every drug dealer’s best friend. Growing up I’ve got used to her going out to work at all hours but I never really knew what she did more…

Up to £1 million a year will be taken from prisoners’ wages to support victims of crime, ministers have said. The Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, as part of his rehabilitation more…

The long sentences passed on the offenders in the August riot have re-opened the question of whether it can ever be right to pass ‘deterrent’ sentences – sentences that are more…

Prisoners should pay some of the money they earn in jail to victims (on top of the existing criminal injuries’ scheme) in order to recompense for their sins and as more…

KIM EVANS AND FRANCIS FITZGIBBON QC: On Wednesday, the appeals of Blackshaw and Sutcliffe, the so called ‘Facebook Rioters’ were dismissed in The High Court, and their prison sentences upheld. more…

On Wednesday, the appeals of Blackshaw and Sutcliffe, the so-called ‘Facebook Rioters’ were dismissed in The High Court, and their prison sentences upheld. Most commentators seemed to accept judicial wisdom more…

COMMENT: Eamonn O’Neill, lecturer in journalism at University of Strathclyde and award winning  investigative journalist on why the CCRC needs to be overhauled and why the media has played its more…

‘A SELF EVIDENT INJUSTICE’. Ralph Barrington, former head of Essex CID and up until March this year investigations adviser to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, goes through the controversial evidence more…

Tony Stock was convicted of robbery at Leeds Assizes in July 1970. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Stock says he is completely innocent and for more than forty more…

The involvement of journalists carrying out investigations into alleged miscarriage of justice cases and influencing the criminal justice system in the UK has a long provenance. A grim roll call more…

Harsh sentences handed out to anyone involved in this summer’s riots were upheld by the Court of Appeal yesterday. Rejecting all but three of 10 appeals considered, they stressed that more…

KIM EVANS: As I help my teenage children to tiptoe through the hormonal minefield that is their teenage years, I wonder if they’re lucky or not in their mother’s choice more…

David Cameron is to make forced marriage a crime. In a speech expected to be delivered later today, the Prime Minister is expected to say that the Government wants to more…

MICHAEL MANSFIELD: ‘The Criminal Cases Review Commission needs to be supported and expanded. Let’s not go back to the iniquities of pre-history. There is a strong reactionary lobby which should more…

A leading academic has lent his weight to a new campaign for proper compensation for the victims of miscarriages of justice. Professor John Spencer QC, of Cambridge University, has damned more…

The Government is planning to remove the ‘fundamental’ right to free legal advice for people held in police. Under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, clause 12, more…

The year that Tony Stock was convicted for his part in a brutal robbery of a Tesco store in the Merrion Centre at Leeds, Edward Heath became British Prime Minister more…

The ‘death in custody’ provisions in the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came into force this month (1st September 2011). The campaigning group INQUEST welcomed the move arguing more…

A motor insurer has claimed that some 300,000 drivers might have accepted penalty points on behalf of someone else in the last ten years. The research from LV= estimated about more…

Ken Clarke blamed the riots that swept across the UK on a penal system that failed to deal with the reoffending of ‘a feral underclass’. The Justice Secretary revealed that more…

Appeal judges attacked the approach to the sentencing of rioters taken by Judge Andrew Gilbart, the Recorder of Manchester. Following the August riots, Gilbart at Manchester Crown Court said the more…

The deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, writing in the Guardian, paid tribute to the UK’s ‘proud history of international leadership on human rights’. ‘Yet something strange has happened in recent more…

KIM EVANS: ‘I’d guesstimate that 90% of my clients have a personality disorder, mental health issues, and, or, serious substance addiction be it drugs or alcohol.’ Kim Evans has spent more…

There was a time when the sight of an envelope addressed to me in green ink, as though written studiously along a ruler’s edge, with each letter truncated in line, more…