The physique accountable for investigating miscarriages of justice in England, Wales and Northern Eire has been plunged into disaster. The chair of the Prison Circumstances Assessment Fee (CCRC), Helen Pitcher, resigned this month following relentless criticism about the way in which the fee had dealt with latest instances.
Most notably, the fee was criticised over the case of Andrew Malkinson, who was wrongly convicted for rape and spent 17 years in jail. The CCRC twice rejected Malkinson’s submissions that he was harmless, and he was solely cleared because of work by his personal legal professionals to trace down DNA proof that proved his innocence.
Malkinson stated the CCRC “didn’t examine they usually didn’t consider me”.
Pitcher stated that she had been made a scapegoat for the failings on the Malkinson case: “A head needed to roll and I used to be chosen for that function,” she stated. Pitcher was not in her put up as chair when the CCRC rejected Malkinson’s first attraction. She rejected the findings of an unbiased panel that concluded her selections, together with not apologising promptly to Malkinson, had eroded confidence within the CCRC.
“I don’t know who or why anybody would need to tackle the function, as a result of you’ll be held accountable for earlier miscarriages of justice,” Pitcher advised the Occasions. “You may be anticipated to have recognized what was happening then. It’s simply not doable.”
Malkinson described the fee as “contaminated with a tradition of denial”. And together with different critics, comparable to authorized professionals, lecturers and campaigners, he believes the CCRC is now not match for function and must be dissolved.
What’s the CCRC?
As soon as a prisoner, who claims to be harmless, has exhausted all authorized avenues they don’t have any alternative however to look past the court docket system for redress.
For a lot of the twentieth century, the final probability saloon was positioned within the coronary heart of presidency, within the Residence Workplace. The house secretary had the facility to ship a case to the Courtroom of Attraction “if he noticed match”.
This association was doomed from the beginning. It made referrals political affairs – significantly within the context of the Irish terrorism instances of the Eighties and 90s. It additionally put the house secretary within the firing line as investigative journalists uncovered miscarriages of justice.
The relentless strain for reform ultimately got here to a head in 1991, with the discharge of the Birmingham Six – six Irishmen who had been wrongly convicted of planting bombs in two Birmingham pubs in 1974 that killed 21 individuals and injured 182. Amid chaotic scenes exterior the Outdated Bailey, Paddy Hill (who died final month), grabbed a microphone and unleashed a savage assault on the establishments that had taken his freedom:
For 16 and a half years we have now been used as political scapegoats. The police advised us from the beginning they knew we hadn’t performed it. They advised us they didn’t care who had performed it. They advised us that we had been chosen they usually had been going to border us. Justice? I don’t suppose the individuals in there [the judiciary] have gotten the intelligence nor the actually to spell the phrase, by no means thoughts dispense it. They’re rotten.
The rising disaster threatened the legitimacy of the whole felony justice system and the federal government had no choice however to behave. A royal fee was arrange, and from it sprung a brand new physique – the CCRC.
When it started work in 1997, the CCRC was the world’s first statutory, publicly-funded physique accountable for investigating miscarriages of justice. The powers at its disposal had been spectacular.
If a prisoner utilized to the CCRC, claiming they had been harmless, the fee might use these powers as a part of a recent investigation into the conviction. It might get info from the police and prosecutors, re-interview witnesses or discover new ones, and order new DNA testing. If it discovered new proof it might then refer a case again to the Courtroom of Attraction.
It has had some successes. The fee was broadly praised for the investigation into the Sam Hallam case, the place it uncovered recent proof that proved the younger Londoner couldn’t have dedicated the homicide he was jailed for.
Sean Dempsey/PA photos
However whereas demand for its providers is hovering, these successes have grow to be rarer.
Final 12 months the CCRC obtained a record-breaking 1,629 functions from individuals claiming they had been harmless, and referred 25 to the Courtroom of Attraction. Critics, describe it as chronically underfunded, reluctant to train its powers and subservient to the Courtroom of Attraction.
Prisoners and their legal professionals say they’re exasperated on the size of time the CCRC takes to look into their instances. However the actual frustration is with the standard of the investigations themselves.
Critics level to instances comparable to Victor Nealon, who spent an extra 10 years in jail as a result of the CCRC refused to hold out DNA checks that will have proved his innocence. He utilized to the CCRC twice however was rejected each occasions.
The then chair of the CCRC, Richard Foster, advised Nealon: “We’re doing what we will to stop something comparable taking place sooner or later”. However because the Malkinson case exhibits, the CCRC hasn’t actually realized its lesson.
A disaster of legitimacy
The physique that was created to unravel a disaster in public confidence is now going through its personal disaster of legitimacy. The CCRC wants new management – and never one other profession bureaucrat. The brand new chair, who’s appointed by the king, should be somebody who will oversee a tradition of change within the organisation – dispelling the insipid timidity and reworking the CCRC into an organisation that pursues justice with out worry or favour.
It should even be funded correctly. The fee is now completely incapable of correctly investigating the large variety of instances it receives. The cash concerned is comparatively small, however the influence on the wrongfully convicted and their households is immeasurable. A parliamentary inquiry discovered that the CCRC had suffered larger cuts that every other a part of the felony justice system since 2010.
And at last, a key structural flaw should be fastened. The “actual risk take a look at” implies that the CCRC will solely refer a case if there’s a actual risk that the Courtroom of Attraction will quash the conviction.
However as a result of the Courtroom of Attraction will solely overturn convictions it believes to be “unsafe”, the CCRC solely considerations itself with security or unsafety moderately than guilt or innocence. From the angle of the Courtroom of Attraction, a conviction is protected if all of the authorized procedures (the arrest adhered to the rules, there have been the proper variety of jurors on the trial) have been adopted. It has nothing to do with the factual guilt of the defendant.
This take a look at should be scrapped. We can’t have a miscarriage of justice watchdog that cares extra about process than innocence.
