Miscarriages of justice - 10/02/25

A ‘miscarriage of justice‘ is …

• The acquittal of the guilty as well as the conviction of the innocent (Runciman Commission, 1993) Or, ‘a failure to attain the desired end-result of ‘’justice’’ (McCartney and Walker, 2002) Or, not only because practitioners have done the wrong thing, but because they have not done enough or, sometimes, have not done anything (Savage et al., 2007).

Examples of miscarriages of justice

• CPS failing

• judiciary failing

• Forensic evidence failing

• Police failing

• Prison and parole board

Police and CPS failings

• Timothy Evans (1950) London

• Murder of his wife and young child

• Police statement taken from tenant

• CPS — sufficient evidence to bring to court

• Sentenced to death

• 2004 cleared of murder

Police, CPS and forensic evidence

• Judith Ward (1974)

• Convicted of the 1972 M62 coach bombing where 12 soldiers and their families were killed

• Served 17 years

• Appeal – lawyers stated there had been "significant
  and substantial" non-disclosure of information to the defence.

• She confessed to the murder, and forensic evidence was introduced to support her conviction

• She suffered from a personality disorder

Forced confession

• ‘The Birmingham 6’ (1974) Birmingham

• 6 Irish suspects were arrested and interrogated

• 4/6 signed confessions

• IRA claimed responsibility for the bombings and declared the 6 were not members of the IRA

• Claimed police had beaten the confessions out of them

• Forensic evidence provided – handles explosives

• Unreliable forensics in 1985 (cigarettes or playing cards)

• March 1991 - freed

When do miscarriages of justice occur?

• Police eg. forced confession

• CPS eg. non-disclosure of evidence

• Courts eg. misconduct in the trial

• Prison eg. unfair treatment

• Parole board / probation eg. problems with appeals

Examples of factors which can lead to MoJos

• Forced confessions

  1. Subject to custodial and interrogative pressure

  2. Psychological vulnerabilities

  3. Lack of transparency concerning evidence

• Witness evidence police and trials

• Unfair sentencing

• Deception

• Gender bias discrimination

• False memory

• Non-disclosure of evidence

The CCRC

• The commission made several recommendations, including the creation of an independent body to review and investigate potential miscarriages of justice.

• The criminal case review commission:

  • Independent public body

  • Established by the criminal appeal act 1995

    • Effective from April 1997

  • Considers claims of wrongful conviction or sentencing

  • Other channels of appeal must be exhausted

    • Magistrate Court appeals — heard in crown court

    • Crown court appeal — heard in court of appeal

  • New evidence / info must be available

Eyewitness testimony

• An EWT is the account a bystander / victim gives in the courtroom, describing what they observed

• Some witnesses are called to court because they know someone well and they have been asked to talk about what they are like

• Witnesses help the jury decide whether or not the defendant is innocent or innocent of the alleged crime

EW Statement

• Key sources of information from criminal investigations

• Factors outside the control of the legal system:

  • Distance the witness was from the crime scene

  • The level of stress or trauma the witness experienced

  • Visibility conditions

  • Angle of the offender

• Factors controlled by the legal system:

  • Procedures for recording eyewitness memories

  • Administration lineups and photo arrays

Research about EWT

• Human memory is one of the largest areas of psychology research

• People generally think that their memories are accurate — especially for important events

• A large body of research literature demonstrates that there are predictable problems with human memory.

• Innocence project:

  • Average time spent in prison is 14 years

  • Faulty EW identifications contributed to 2/3 of wrongful convictions (63%)

• But EW statements are key sources of information for criminal investigations

The use of ID line ups

• ID parades are a commonly used technique with witnesses

• The police suspect is presented to the witness along with a number of foils or distractors

Criminal Justice Act 2014 Section 133 (1ZA)

• The legal test in the criminal justice act section 133 (1ZA) introduced by the coalition government in 2014 states that:

  • Compensation is only available if the new or newly discovered fact that led to the conviction being squashed shows ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ that the person did not commit the offence

  • This essentially means that they must prove their innocence — therefore reversing the age old principle of innocent until proven guilty (Due process)

  • From 2016 to 2024 of the 591 applications for compensation by miscarriage of justice victims, only 39 were granted — less than 7% (appeal, 2024)

Summary

• Leading causes of MoJos — EWT

• Decades of psychology literature has demonstrated that human memory can be unreliable, for a variety of reasons, including:

  • False memory

  • Weapon focus

• EWT will always be an important part of police investigations, but investigators (and prosecutors, jurors etc) should be aware of the issues with memory and implement procedures that minimise the chances of error

• Compensation is available but difficult to obtain