A family's fight for their son's freedom
Reading Time: 10 minutes The Law Commission’s ongoing review of the criminal appeals system completed its pre-consultation phase last week, examining a raft of proposed reforms to the way our State institutions respond to potential miscarriages of justice. I was immediately struck by a well-intentioned but highly questionable passage in the Law Commission’s Issues...
Reading Time: 7 minutes When the Westminster Commission on Miscarriages of Justice published the findings of its inquiry into the Criminal Cases Review Commission (‘In the Interests of Justice’) on 5 March 2021, it made over 40 recommendations. Whilst the vast majority of these were directed at the CCRC, 9 of the recommendations made...
Reading Time: 5 minutes Deconstructing a wrongful conviction is a painstaking process. Often, once all the tripwires that floored the original jury have been carefully exposed, a case will require extensive investigative efforts to reveal previously unseen evidence that can exonerate the individual, or at least raise serious doubts about the veracity of the...
Reading Time: 5 minutes One of the many problems plaguing the Criminal Cases Review Commission – the body set up to review potential miscarriages of justice in England and Wales – is the sheer length of time that it takes them to consider any given application. To help address the issue, the House of...
Reading Time: 8 minutes Proving your innocence in most cases requires finding some ‘fresh evidence’ that wasn’t available at your original trial, a challenge that stops many a wrongly convicted person in their tracks. Unless you are one of the lucky few able to acquire pro bono support, conducting a private investigation from behind...
Reading Time: 5 minutes Most people wrongly convicted of a crime are quick to lodge an appeal within the allotted 28-day time limit. Unless there was something seriously wrong with the actual trial process however, your only hope of an acquittal is to find some fresh evidence that wasn’t available just a week or...
Reading Time: 4 minutes In 2019, a Westminster Commission made up of a growing number of MPs concerned by the rising tide of wrongful convictions across England and Wales was formed across party political lines in search of solutions. Establishing an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Miscarriages of Justice (APPGMJ), they launched a public inquiry...
Reading Time: 4 minutes Mark’s visceral experience of the criminal justice system has impressed upon him the urgent need for reform. “You just don’t learn this kind of thing at law school, the real, practical issues that undermine and delegitimise the entire process”. Invited to contribute to a new book, ‘Crime and Consequence‘, Mark...
Reading Time: 9 minutes Asked to write a book review for the Prison Service Journal, Mark submitted this thought provoking piece on ‘Parole and Beyond‘, a comparative study of international parole systems that shines a spotlight on the hidden workings and effects of correctional justice. Parole and Beyond – International Experiences of Life after...
Reading Time: 17 minutes Mark Alexander writing on the resurgence and growth of innocence projects in universities Originally published in Criminal Law and Justice Weekly – Issue 23 (2016) 180 JPN 411 – 415 [1] Over the past 9 months I’ve been trying to get a sense of the health of the innocence project...
Reading Time: 8 minutes A shorter version of this article was first published on the Justice Gap The announcement that Innocence Network UK (INUK) had disbanded in September 2014 came as a real shock to those of us on the inside still fighting for justice. There had been no indication to those of us on...
Reading Time: 6 minutes In 2015, the CCRC opted not to refer our first application to the Court of Appeal In spite of the new evidence we presented to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), it has decided not to refer my case to the Court of Appeal. This is because the CCRC do...
Reading Time: 6 minutes The Joint Committee on the draft Voting Eligibility (Prisoners) Bill – comprised of 6 MPs and 6 Peers –recently invited interested organisations and individuals to tender written evidence as part of their inquiry into Prisoner Voting. This follows pressure on parliament from the Council of Europe to comply with the...
Days Wrongfully Imprisoned
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