RESPONSE TO INDEPENDENT REVIEW BY CHRIS HENLEY KC OF THE CCRC’S HANDLING OF THE ANDREW MALKINSON CASE
(Posted on 18/07/24)
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IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RESPONSE TO INDEPENDENT REVIEW BY CHRIS HENLEY KC OF THE CCRC’S HANDLING OF THE ANDREW MALKINSON CASE
Inside Justice welcomes the new Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s firm action in response to today’s long-awaited publication of the independent Henley review.
Root and branch reform of the criminal cases review system is needed urgently to ensure public safety, according to the charity which investigates miscarriages of justice.
While wrongly convicted people languish in prisons for years with little chance of release, perpetrators are walking the streets undetected.
The charity, which has been campaigning for
systemic change since 2010, calls on the Government to undertake a full and
urgent review of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
Among its various calls, it urges the CCRC to drop the ‘real possibility’ test and instead exhaust all reasonable avenues when determining whether a case should be referred.
Inside Justice’s Chair Tim Harrison said: “Mr Henley’s report confirms what we have been saying since 2010, that there is an urgent need for complete reform so that miscarriages of justice can be swiftly identified and rectified now, not years later as we have seen in cases like Andrew Malkinson’s.
“We, as a team of multi-disciplinary senior experts, will continue to work supportively and constructively with CCRC to expedite the reinvestigation of the many cases requiring immediate scrutiny.”
Since its inception in 1997, the CCRC has rejected the
vast majority of applications from people who claim to have been wrongfully
convicted.
Henley told the Guardian that “it would
be worryingly complacent simply to pass this off as an isolated case”.
Inside Justice’s CEO Professor Sarah Niblock said: “We
have received a massive increase in applications to Inside Justice per year –
1060 in 2023 compared with 144 in 2018. While not every application will make
it through to reinvestigation, it’s evident that many innocent people and their
families feel they have been failed by the justice system and that we are their
last hope. The same goes for families of victims who feel justice hasn’t been
served.
“The real possibility test means that CCRC bases its
decisions on the likelihood of success rather than whether it should rightly be
put forward.”
Inside Justice argues that the cost to individuals and to
society of wrongful convictions is significant.
It costs over £51,000 per year to keep someone in prison,
added to which are the knock-on effects on families, children and communities.
Prof Niblock added: “As we saw with the Horizon scandal,
this isn’t something that happens to other people. It could happen to any of us
tomorrow. It’s hard to begin to imagine what it feels like to be incarcerated
for a crime you did not commit with no voice and no hope of justice.”
ENDS
NOTE TO EDITOR
Inside Justice experts are available for interview. For
further information please email info@insidejustice.co.uk.
Read our manifesto blog here.
Inside Justice was founded in 2010 and became a charity
in 2018. It has built a wholly unique advisory
panel of world-renowned experts in not only criminal law but also forensics and
police detection who work pro bono to strengthen the criminal justice system.
We provide free access to experts and lawyers and
identify and challenge systemic failings.
We rely entirely on charitable donations.
The miscarriage of justice review body, the Criminal
Cases Review Commission (‘CCRC’) was created in the wake of the infamous
wrongful convictions of the Birmingham 6 and the Guildford 4. It was designed
to act as a conduit for sending potential miscarriages of justice back to the
Court of Appeal Criminal Division (‘CACD’) so the safety of the conviction can
be reviewed in light of new or ‘fresh’ evidence.
The Westminster Commission on Miscarriages of Justice
concluded in its March 2021 report on the CCRC that changing the “problematic”
test might create a different, more independent mindset.
