Misjustice: How British Law is Failing Women

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Lawyers, MPs, campaigners and a series of academic studies have argued that joint enterprise is racially discriminatory, because young black men are more frequently accused of being in gangs – and therefore having a common group intention to commit violence – than young white men. In 1992, Guy Paul Morin was convicted of the 1984 rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Until the mid-17th Century someone accused of a crime could find themselves facing another terrifying ordeal: torture.

Since 1989, the Innocence Project has helped overturn 375 convictions of American prisoners with updated DNA evidence. Kennedy points out that the opinion of a court (that saying “fuck me harder” while having sex on all fours constituted “unusual sexual behaviour”) “said a lot about [the judges’] own sexual experience and their lack of familiarity with contemporary pornography in which this behaviour is standard”. Since the start of the pandemic, the Home Office has sought to hold fewer people in removal centres for Covid-19 safety reasons, placing many in prisons instead. Richard Foster, the Chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), reported in October 2018 that the single biggest cause of miscarriage of justice was the failure to disclose vital evidence. Readers who are well-versed in the technical aspects of feminist jurisprudence may thus be frustrated by the lack of theory in this book.After juror Edward Bushel, in his prison cell, sought a writ of habeas corpus from Chief Justice Sir John Vaughan, a ruling was made which safeguarded the future independence of juries. Witnesses also have considerable difficulty making accurate identifications with suspects from different ethnic groups such that "the rate of mistaken identification is significantly higher than most people tend to believe". Wrongly executed people nevertheless occasionally receive posthumous pardons—which essentially void the conviction—or have their convictions quashed.

David Lammy MP, speaking, and Tory MP Andrew Mitchell, who told the campaigners he was ‘deeply concerned there has been so little response from the justice system’.These figures provide a proxy for miscarriages of justice because "false confessions are highly likely to lead to wrongful convictions". Jordan Cunliffe had an eye condition that made him eligible to be registered as blind, and a medical report for his trial described him as “unable to perform any tasks for which vision is necessary”. Although he moved from Jamaica to England with his family aged four, the government was preparing to deport him to Jamaica last year, after he had served three years in prison. If you are planning on working within the c riminal j ustice s ystem, I would highly recommend this book, as it is brutally honest about the injustices that many people face . Ending the halfway release of offenders sentenced to between four and seven years in prison for serious violent and sexual offences such as rape, manslaughter and GBH with intent.

Current laws ban the presence of a ‘stranger’ being in the jury deliberation room – this will be scrapped and instead allow a British Sign Language Interpreter into the room. If the conviction turns out to be a miscarriage of justice, then one or both of these statements is ultimately deemed to be false. In cases where a large-scale audience is unknowingly witness to a miscarriage of justice, the news-consuming public may develop false beliefs about the nature of crime itself. The sense of injustice can be a powerless motivational condition, causing people to take action not just to defend themselves but also others who they perceive to be unfairly treated.For more on the substantial difference in judges' decisions depending on time since last food break, see chpt 3 of Thinking, Fast and Slow.

The Criminal Appeal (Scotland) Act 1927 increased the jurisdiction of the Scottish Court of Criminal Appeal following the miscarriage of justice surrounding the Trial of Oscar Slater. Exonerations in the United States, 1989 – 2012 / Report by the National Registry of Exonerations" (PDF).There are unfavorable psychological effects to those who were wrongfully sanctioned, even in the absence of any public knowledge. Individuals detained in an IRC have the right to access an ‘advice surgery’ that guarantees access to 30 minutes of legal advice, regardless of whether they meet the requirements for financial eligibility to receive legal services, whereas detainees held in prison only qualify to receive civil legal services if they meet both the financial resources criteria.