‘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…

An Important Message to University Law Students: Innocence Projects are Not Immune ‘Price Competitive Tendering (PCT) in criminal legal aid will inevitably lead to a surge in applications to university 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…

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…

REVIEW: ‘Clive Stafford Smith did a better job of defending Kris Maharaj in this book than his defence team ever did,’ according to HMP Wandsworth’s book club in their review more…

The House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee has been inviting some of the major players in forensics science to give evidence to it about how forensics science is developing 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…

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…

  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…

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…

APPALLING VISTAS: In 1980, West Midlands Police successfully appealed against a High Court ruling that civil action for assault brought by the men convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings 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…

REVIEW: A 13 year old boy is wrongly accused of a crime, writes Francis Fitzgibbon QC. His accuser is an unaccountable organ of the state, which finds him guilty without 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…

Instead of closing the gap, a huge chasm has just opened up right at the top of the system, writes Michael Mansfield QC. It is a shocking and disgraceful manoeuvre 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

I have never been able to view Hillsborough with the dispassionate eye lawyers are supposed to bring to bear, writes Mark George QC. That’s probably because long before I ever 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…

A few months back there was some discussion around the level of service that legally aided clients could expect in the era of permanent cuts in the legal aid budget.  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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Most people in Liverpool can tell you what they were doing on 15th April 1989. At 3.00 I was listening to local radio following Everton FC’s FA Cup semi-final with more…

I once made a television programme about the phenomenon of the ‘Vexatious Litigant’, writes David Jessel. It was meant to be a sympathetic portrait, which made it all the more more…

FEATURE: There are over 6,000 people in prison who arguably shouldn’t be there and have no release date, writes Sophie Barnes. Of this number about half have already served their 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…

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…

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…

‘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…

Following the JusticeGap’s Wrongly Accused debate at College of London in Store Street, London in April, we are running a second debate in Manchester. We are organising it with the 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…

‘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…

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…

Last week, those of us involved directly or indirectly in the miscarriage of justice world were celebrating that rare event – the decision by the Court of Appeal to quash 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…

REPORT: Sam Hallam was ‘the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice’, writes Kim Evans. So said Henry Blaxland QC in his opening address to the Court of Appeal today. 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…

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…

‘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…

The High Court last week ordered a toddler be returned to her parents after she was removed at birth following the death of her brother in 2009 bringing to an 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. 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…

As Billy Mills stood on the steps of the Edinburgh Court of Criminal Appeal in March 2009, he was overcome with relief as the words of Lord Gill echoed in more…

It is more than 20 years ago since the Birmingham 6 were released as innocent men, but the stark reality is that if their appeals has not been successful they 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…

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…

One in five psychologists instructed as expert witness in the family courts was deemed ‘inadequately qualified for the role’, in a new report out today. Evaluating Expert Witness Psychological Reports: 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…

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…

If you are interested in attending the launch for Wrongly accused. Who is responsible for investigating miscarriages of justice? let us know. WHERE: College of Law, 14 Store Street, London 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…

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…

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…

‘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…

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…

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…