The Justice Gap (www.thejusticegap.com)

Miscarriage watchdog invites CPS inspectorate to review handling of wrongful convictions. CCRC interim chair Vera Baird: 'It is important that stakeholders have confidence.  We know we need the assurance of an inspection to prove that point.' thejusticegap.com/miscarriage-...

'Bonkers' Jenrick on manoeuvers: shadow justice minister expected to call for Sentencing Council to be scrapped & reveal ‘dossier’ of 30+ ‘activist’ judges who have volunteered for groups supporting refugees or posted supportive messages on social media. thejusticegap.com/bonkers-and-...

The CCRC has sent the case of Clive Freeman back to the Court of Appeal. Freeman has served 37 years for crimes he insists he did not commit. In 1989, he was convicted of arson and the murder of Alexander Hardie after Hardie was found dead in his flat thejusticegap.com/ccrc-refers-...

Justin Plummer believes he was framed by the police: 'I was doing that many burglaries, I reckon somewhere along the line I did a high-ranking copper’s house or a KC’s and they said to Bedfordshire Police get this sorted out because “he’s taking the piss”.’

'If they thought they could get away with it again, they would’: Justin Plummer, free after 28yrs in prison, on having his conviction overturned in 2021, only to be reconvicted on word of a schizophrenic police informant cellmate & having that overturned: thejusticegap.com/justin-plumm...

‘It will be interesting to see how Court of Appeal responds to what seems to be a more expansive approach by the CCRC. The CCRC has rightly been criticised for its failings, but the Court of Appeal played its part too.' Dr Hannah Quirk, reader in Criminal Law at King’s College

CCRC uses 'safety valve' power for first time to refer without fresh evidence: Miscarriage watchdog sends Ben Fields case back to the Court of Appeal for the first time in 30 years invoking section 13(2). Is this a sign of a newly energised CCRC? thejusticegap.com/ccrc-uses-sa...

During 6m of research, 1/3 of Old Bailey’s courts occupied by JE trials. 'Cost is staggering: across 17 trials, 54yrs spent on remand, inc. 19 years by individuals not convicted or not sentenced to custody. Remand for this group alone is estimated to have cost between £1- £2.2m.'

Joint enterprise ‘shattering lives through overreaching prosecutions’: @we-are-appeal.bsky.social's
Nisha Waller & Tehreem Sultan on new research into 17 murder trials at the Old Bailey, 55 defendants including 33 secondary parties thejusticegap.com/joint-enterp...

Inspectors found ‘thriving elicit economies of drugs, mobile phones and weapons’ at Manchester and Long Lartin. In January, Charlie Taylor called for urgent actions to tackle drones. It was ‘highly alarming’ police and prisons had ‘ceded the airspace’ to organised crime gangs.

Prisons have ‘ceded airspace’ to crime gangs’ drones: ‘Overwhelming’ flood of drugs is ‘destablising’ prisons, says Chief Inspector of Prisons’ - in a category C prison a staggering 59% of prisoners tested positive for drugs. Pic Andy Aitchison thejusticegap.com/prisons-have...

Prof Angela Gallop, co chair of Westminster Commission, said, 'commoditisation and fragmentation' has led to the 'dumbing down' of forensics.

@kimjohnsonmp.bsky.social, chair of the APPG on miscarriages of justice: ‘These cases are not isolated incidents but symptoms of deep, systemic failings in our criminal justice system.'

'Science belongs in the hands of scientists, not the police': Report on launch of Westminster Commission on Forensic Science. 'If we want to avoid miscarriages of justice, we need to have strong forensic sector - not one teetering on the brink.' thejusticegap.com/science-belong

MPs to debate proposal to end ‘systemic injustice’ of joint enterprise: ‘The principle is simple,’ says
@kimjohnsonmp.bsky.social. ‘If you did not make a significant contribution to a crime, you should not be convicted of it.’ thejusticegap.com/mps-to-debat...

Georgia joins US states legislating for miscarriage of justice compensation. Still has death penalty, but exonerees to receive $75,000 for every year wrongfully imprisoned, plus an additional $25,000 for every year spent on death row thejusticegap.com/georgia-joins-…

'What we want is for them [the MoJ] to appreciate how low the organisation has sunk and to revive it': @hammersmithandy.bsky.social talks to the JusticeGap about the 'hollowing out' of the CCRC - 'an organisation that continually fails to learn from its mistakes' thejusticegap.com/andy-slaught...

The Birmingham Four: terrorist masterminds – or victims of a police fit-up? In August 2017, four men were jailed for life at the Old Bailey for plotting a terrorist attack. They were caught in an undercover police sting, and their defence lawyers insist their case continues t...

This is my piece on the Birmingham 4 Case, which bears an eery resemblance to the Birmingham Six. Thanks loads to Jon Robins for his help – Jon wrote a great piece on them for his fantastic @justicegap.bsky.social website
www.theguardian.com/law/ng-inter...

Government is never going to fix problems at CCRC unless MoJ changes KPIs - see Lord Ponsonby's depressing response to how MoJ assesses 'performance' in light of Sullivan: 'CCRC has a target of completing 85% of cases within 12 months of receiving them...'

CCRC ‘unravelling quickly’ as chair accused of misleading MPs: 'There will be more Malkinsons and more cases of that hideous nature unless the Government really grab hold of it and take charge,’ says Lord Garnier in House of Lords debate thejusticegap.com/ccrc-unravel...

A shabby day for British justice: An extended version of this article by Duncan appeared in PROOF #4: thejusticegap.com/wang-yam-app...

Love that pic. On the site, we have a default pic that is selected when there's no image chosen for a story. For some random reason it was this pic - so it was all over the site for about a year...

'Crime is prism thru which we see society, its anxieties & phobias': Sad to hear of the death of Duncan Campbell. We spoke to him in 2017, wise & hilarious about 'poisonous relationship' btn cops & reporters 'lubricated by booze & sealed thru backhanders’: thejusticegap.com/14672/

Peter Sullivan conviction overturned after 38 yrs: exoneration has been called the longest miscarriage of justice in British justice, comes 16 yrs after first applied to CCRC. The watchdog expresses 'regret' for not having referred case first time around thejusticegap.com/peter-sulliv...

Zellick on ‘grotesque mishandling’ of the Andrew Malkinson case '... nothing to do with the ‘real possibility’ test and everything to do with a lamentable failure to understand the law and appreciate the significance of new DNA evidence’.

Former CCRC chair calls Law Commission proposal to scrap statutory test ‘distraction’. Prof Graham Zellick on the bigger problem of an ‘uneven' Court of Appeal with 'limited experience' of criminal law' & the 'catastrophic loss of confidence' in watchdog.
thejusticegap.com/former-ccrc-...

Edward Garnier KC: ‘Does he agree CCRC needs real leadership? It needs an exec chairman with legal standing, FT salaried commissioners & better paid caseworkers. The CCRC is vital to justice system. It is in a state of complete collapse and it needs gripping by this Government.’

Baroness Butler Sloss told peers someone who worked for her ‘may have been unjustly sent to prison well over 10 years ago’. ‘Is it not time that the entire commission is set aside & new people appointed, with everything done as a matter of some urgency?'

‘The CCRC is in a state of complete collapse’: Former solicitor general Edward Garnier calls for government get a 'grip' of failing miscarriage watchdog. Retired appeal judge Baroness Butler Sloss calls for 'entire commission' to be 'set aside' thejusticegap.com/the-ccrc-is-...

Former conservative solicitor general Lord Edward Garnier KC called upon ministers to address the ‘complete collapse’ of the Criminal Cases Review Commission in a House of Lords debate yesterday @justicegap.bsky.social www.thejusticegap.com/the-ccrc-is-...