No CCRC for South Australia but new statutory right of appeal for certain qualifying offences

On the 18th July 2012 the South Australian Legislative Review Committee on the CCRC Bill Reported that it would not be recommending that a CCRC-style body be established in South Australia. Instead, of the seven recomendations, Recommendation 3 was for a new statutory right for certain qualifying offences to provide that a person may be allowed at any time to appeal against a conviction for serious offences if the court is satisfied that:

 the conviction is tainted;

 where there is fresh and compelling evidence in relation to the offence which may cast reasonable doubt on the guilt of the convicted person.

Recommendation 5 was that the Attorney-General considers establishing a Forensic Science Review Panel to enable the testing or re-testing of forensic evidence which may cast reasonable doubt on the guilt of a convicted person, and for these results to be referred to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Dr Michael Naughton consulted to the review.

Click here for the Full Report.

INUK: Setting the record straight

Various sources have wrongly reported that Dr Carole McCartney was a co-founder of Innocence Network UK (INUK).

This is not correct.

INUK was founded by Dr Michael Naughton alone who also directed the project for the whole of its life time at the University of Bristol.

It is true, however, that Dr Naughton did work with Dr McCartney (and other interested parties) in 2003/04 on exploring the desirability and feasibility of innocence projects in UK universities as they do in the United States and other jurisdictions.

It is also true that Dr Naughton explored working in collaboration with Dr McCartney and Leeds University to develop INUK, which was expressed in various public meetings and articles.

However, that potential collaboration did not materialise and whilst Dr McCartney is correctly credited with setting up one of the early innocence projects in a UK university (with significant input from Dr Naughton), she did not help in the founding of INUK or with its development in any way.

Finally, and in fairness to Dr McCartney, it is instructive that her university biogs over the years at whichever university she has been at have never claimed that she is a co-founder of Innocence Network UK (INUK) or that she was associated with INUK in any way.