Major impacts

Innocence Network UK (INUK)’s major impacts include:

1) Innocence Network UK (INUK) resurrected a concern for, and a system for providing casework assistance to, alleged innocent victims of wrongful convictions that was lost when the organisations JUSTICE and Liberty and television programmes such as Rough Justice and Trial and Error ceased working on alleged miscarriages of justice on the mistaken belief that the setting up of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) was the panacea to the problem of wrongful convictions.

2) 36 innocence projects were set up in universities and one in a corporate law firm under the auspices of Innocence Network UK (INUK) to provide pro bono investigations into alleged wrongful convictions.

3) Over 1,000 full applications from alleged innocent victims of wrongful conviction and/or imprisonment have been assessed for eligibility, i.e. might be innocent and there is something that can be done to determine if the claim of innocence is truthful or not.

4) Over 100 eligible cases have been referred to member innocence projects for further investigation, i.e. to follow up on lines of inquiry that were identified by Innocence Network UK (INUK

5) In June 2014, Innocence Network UK (INUK) (jointly with JUSTICE and CALA (Criminal Appeal Lawyers Association)) was a Third-Party Intervener in the Supreme Court case of R (Nunn) v Chief Constable of Suffolk Constabulary, which considered arguments on the limitations on access to exhibits for DNA testing post-conviction. The INUK submission, drafted by Dr Michael Naughton and Gabe Tan, succeeded in achieving positive reforms to the existing Attorney General’s rules on disclosure and access to evidence post-conviction for alleged victims of wrongful convictions. Click here for more information and here for the INUK submission.) assessment for eligibility.

6) In December 2014 Dwaine George’s conviction for murder became the first  innocence project case overturned in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) following an Innocence Network UK (INUK) referral to a member innocence project (Cardiff Law School) to follow up on identified lines of further investigation.

7) In December 2021, Justin Plummer’s conviction for the murder of Janice Cartwright-Gilbert was overturned by the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) along the same lines as the report by the University of Bristol Innocence Project regarding the unreliability of the footwear impressions. (Click here for: CCRC refers the murder conviction of Justin Plummer).