Click here to download INUK’s Report on the Reform of the CCRC.

Click here for University of Bristol Press Release

A review of the Criminal Cases Review Commission’s (CCRC) effectiveness as the only gateway back to the Court of Appeal for convicted persons who have failed in their first appeal is published today [01 Feb].

Findings from the Innocence Network UK (INUK)-led report has revealed how innocent victims of wrongful convictions can be failed and calls for urgent reforms to ensure innocent victims of wrongful convictions are better assisted.

The Report, comprising a series of recommendations from some of the UK’s leading academic experts, criminal appeal practitioners and former CCRC Commissioners, was collated at a recent INUK symposium to mark the CCRC’s 15th anniversary.

Contributions from victims of wrongful convictions and alleged innocent victims of wrongful conviction who are struggling to achieve a referral …

University of Bristol Press Release

William ‘Wullie’ Beck’s thirty-year fight to clear his name for a conviction he served six years of imprisonment for has culminated in an appeal thanks to work by the University of Bristol Innocence Project (UoBIP). The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission announced this week they have referred Mr Beck’s case back to the High Court of Justiciaryafter agreeing his conviction may be unsafe.

William Beck was 20 when he was arrested for an armed robbery of a post van in Livingston, Scotland on 16 December 1981. He served six years of imprisonment for his conviction, which was based exclusively on eyewitness identification.

Although Mr Beck claims that he was in Glasgow the entire day at the time of the robbery, some 40 miles away from where the crime occurred, he was convicted on the positive identification of two …

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 Innocence Network UK (INUK) today, publishes a dossier of 44 cases of alleged innocent victims of wrongful conviction. All of these cases have been refused a referral back to the Court of Appeal at least once by the Criminal Cases Review Commission despite continuing doubts about the evidence that led to their convictions.

The cases included in the dossier comprise mainly of prisoners who are serving life or long-term sentences for serious offences, ranging from gangland murders, armed robbery, rape and other sexual offences. All of them continue to maintain that they have no involvement at all in the offences they were convicted of despite having failed in their appeal and refused a referral by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. They assert that they were wrongly convicted due to reasons including fabricated confessions, eyewitness misidentification, police misconduct, flawed expert evidence, …

Press Release (15/12/2011): INUK Issues Public Statement on the Limitations of the Criminal Cases Review Commission

Innocent people are still languishing in prison despite a publicly funded body that was set up to assist them to overturn their wrongful convictions. The Innocence Network UK (INUK) calls today for the reform of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) — the last resort for innocent victims of wrongful conviction.

Fifteen years on since the Criminal Cases Review Commission was established following a recommendation of the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice in the wake of notorious cases such as the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four, a growing mountain of cases is emerging that reveal the CCRC is not fit for the purpose of helping the innocent to overturn their wrongful convictions.

Since its establishment in September 2004, the Innocence Network UK (INUK) has received over …

Following to a meeting with the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), the University of Bristol Innocence Project has made a second submission to the SCCRC on behalf of Mr William Beck.

Click here to view submission.

University of Bristol Innocence Project submit response to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission on behalf of William Beck.

Submission (redacted) here
Press Release
Story on BBC Scotland website

Extract from Private Eye (Feb 2011: Issue 1280, page 30) on DNA testing for Neil Hurley:

‘Students from the law department [of the University of Bristol] found that a number of police officers involved in the Prichard investigation were alleged to have been involved in other wrongful convictions. Two key officers have also recently been convicted of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to commit fraud, casting a new light on their evidence in Hurley’s case.

The project’s casework manager, Gabe Tan, has tracked down more than 100 exhibits recovered from the crime scene, the 22-year-old victim’s body, Mr Hurley and the two other suspects, which could prove Mr Hurley’s innocence – or guilt. All of which could now be forensically tested.

Despite the absence of physical evidence linking Mr Hurley to the crime, he was found guilty at …

University of Bristol Innocence Project response to Simon Hall judgment by the Court of Appeal.

University of Bristol Innocence Project response to Simon Hall judgment by the Court of Appeal

Extract from Private Eye (Jan 2011: Issue 1278, page 32) on Simon Hall’s appeal:

‘Three appeal court judges heard new scientific testimony which undermines the only evidence link Hall, now 33, to the fatal stabbing – microscopic fibres. Although fingerprints, footprints, and DNA material found at the murder scene did not match Hall’s, he was convicted solely on the discovery of clothing fibres found in two cars and addresses associated with him which experts said “were indistinguishable” from those found at Mrs Albert’s house.

But in a case which starkly shows the dangers of relying solely on scientific evidence to underpin a conviction, a forensic fibre expert instructed by the Criminal Case Review Commission told the appeal judges that the fibres did not match at all. They were different in colour, thickness and in the amount of titanium particles. Furthermore, the carbon …

University of Bristol Innocence Project (UoBIP): Simon Hall appeal heard in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division).

University of Bristol Innocence Project (UoBIP): Murder case to be heard at the Court of Appeal
Press Release from University of Bristol Innocence Project (UoBIP): Why the conviction of Simon Hall cannot stand

Cardiff Law School Innocence Project submits six applications referred to it by the INUK to the CCRC.

Click here for information.

University of Bristol Innocence Project (UoBIP) submits Application to Criminal Cases Review Commission on behalf of Neil Hurley
Click here for Application
Click here for Press Release

Extract from Private Eye (Nov, 2009: Issue 1249, page 29) on Simon Hall’s referral back to the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division):

‘The Commission [Criminal Cases Review Commission] says it has new scientific evidence that casts doubt on the only forensic evidence that was said to have linked Hall, now aged 31, to the fatal stabbing – fibres found at the scene.

In fact there is another crucial piece of evidence which points to Hall’s innocence. It had been buried in a mass of unused material, handed over to Hall’s the defence team just days before his trial, and it has recently been unearthed by law students working on Bristol University “Innocence Project”.

The students found a statement from a care worker who looked after an elderly man living 10 minutes away from Mrs Albert in Capel St Mary and who was also …

University of Bristol Innocence Project: Simon Hall has his case referred back to the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Click here for Press Release, 15 October 2009

Cardiff Nexus succeed in getting the case of Robert Bradley that was referred to it by INUK reviewed by the CCRC.

Click here for CCRC Press release

University of Bristol Innocence Project submissions to the CCRC on behalf of Simon Hall

October 2009: Further submission on the fibre evidence
July 2009: Question to CCRC for clarification
January 2009: Submission on Y-STR DNA Testing
October 2007: Submission on the fibre evidence