Misjustice: How British Law is Failing Women

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Judicial review is an indispensable mechanism for individuals to assert those rights and freedoms against the power of the state. Any government that cares about freedom and justice should celebrate and protect these vital institutions and never demean or threaten them.” Daniel S. Medwed (2022). Barred: Why the Innocent Can't Get Out of Prison. Basic Books. ISBN 978-1-5416-7591-9. Tougher community sentences which double the amount of time offenders can be subject to curfew restrictions to 2 years.

Covey, Russell (2012–2013). "Police Misconduct as a Cause of Wrongful Convictions". Washington University Law Review. 90: 1133. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) brought significant budget cuts and partially or wholly removed entire areas of civil law from the scope of legal aid – including most benefits, debt, housing, employment and immigration advice, as well as family law that doesn’t involve domestic violence. A major factor leading to the abolition of capital punishment for murder in the United Kingdom was the case of Timothy Evans, who was executed in 1950 after being wrongfully convicted of a murder that had in fact been committed by his neighbour. The Bill will also enshrine a Police Covenant in law, strengthening the support received by serving and retired officers, staff and their families. In addition, maximum penalties will be doubled from 12 months to 2 years for those who assault police or other emergency workers, such as prison officers, fire personnel or frontline health workers – helping to protect those who put their lives on the line to keep communities safe. Academics believe that six main factors contribute to miscarriages of justice. [14] [15] These include eyewitness misidentification, faulty forensic analysis, false confessions by vulnerable suspects, perjury and lies told by witnesses, misconduct by police, prosecutors or judges and inadequate defence strategies put forward by the defendant's legal team. [16] Unreliability of eyewitness testimony [ edit ]

The Editorial Board (February 12, 2016). "Prisoners Exonerated, Prosecutors Exposed". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 4, 2017 . Retrieved May 10, 2017.

The Innocence Project says 44% of wrongful convictions are the result of faulty forensic analysis. This occurs when forensic experts inadvertently or deliberately misrepresent the significance, validity or reliability of scientific evidence. Over the years, misrepresentations have been made in the arenas of serological analysis, microscopic hair comparison, and the analysis of bite marks, shoe prints, soil, fiber, and fingerprints. [16] Overconfident experts [ edit ] Extended ‘positions of trusts’ laws to protect teenagers from abuse by making it illegal for sports coaches and religious leaders from engaging in sexual activity with 16 and 17-year-olds.Mass media may also be faulted for distorting the public perception of crime by over-representing certain races and genders as criminals and victims, and for highlighting more sensational and invigorating types of crimes as being more newsworthy. The way a media presents crime-related issues may have an influence not only on a society's fear of crime but also on its beliefs about the causes of criminal behavior and desirability of one or another approach to crime control. [39] Ultimately, this may have a significant impact on critical public beliefs about emerging forms of crime such as cybercrime, global crime, and terrorism. [40] Confirmation bias is a psychological phenomenon whereby people tend to seek and interpret information in ways that support existing beliefs. Two inter-related mechanisms tend to operate: it begins with a biased interpretation of whatever information is available, followed by selectively searching for information which supports this interpretation. [32] In police investigations, this comes into play when detectives identify a suspect early in an investigation, come to believe he or she is guilty, and then ignore or downplay other evidence that points to someone else or doesn't fit their hypothesis about what occurred. [33]

Enshrining open justice principles by allowing for remote observers – using video and audio technology – across the vast majority of our courts and tribunals improving public access and transparency. In 2002, the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal made an exception to who could avail of the right to a fair trial in R v Walsh: "... if a defendant has been denied a fair trial it will almost be inevitable that the conviction will be regarded unsafe, the present case in our view constitutes an exception to the general rule. ... the conviction is to be regarded as safe, even if a breach of Article 6(1) were held to have occurred in the present case." [58] (See Christy Walsh (Case).) Stephanie Slifer, ed. (March 27, 2014). "How the wrongfully convicted are compensated for years lost". CBS News. Having been recommended to read Eve Was Framed: Women and British Justice I came across this more recent update of Helena Kennedy's 1993 book. Here, she notes in the introduction noticeable improvements and solutions to problems which she raised then, and where work still needs to be done. The introduction itself is one of the best parts of the book and I would recommend it for anyone wanting a good overview of the treatment of women at the hands of the courts in the UK and for an excellent account of Kennedy's own views.A series of wrongful convictions uncovered in the 2010s has undermined public trust in the Chinese justice system. [51] [52] [53] Netherlands [ edit ] I think Helena Kennedy perfectly and without bias explores the reasons as to why there is injustice with the way in which women are treated by the law and its enforcers. Qualitatively Estimating the Incidence of Wrongful Convictions" (PDF). , Criminal Law Bulletin 48(2) [2012] 221—279 Wow, this book really hammers home the realisation that work is still needed to achieve equality. It is impossible not to be angered by the outdated, almost interrogative enquiries that female crime victims are subjected to by judges. It sometimes seems as if they are the ones on trial!

A really important book. Viscerally highlights all the key areas in which women are disadvantaged and discriminated against by the law which is adjudicated by the mostly “male and pale” judiciary. Imran* was detained in prison under immigration powers, and was unable to access a legal aid lawyer for 9-10 months. Though being held under the same powers as many detained in immigration removal centres (IRCs), Imran was held in a prison, where conditions are more restrictive and there is less, or sometimes no, access to legal advice. 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.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’. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian Yet despite the Jogee decision, the court of appeal subsequently ruled that convictions could not be overturned unless appellants could prove they had suffered “substantial injustice”. JENGbA and their supporters argue that in effect this means that people have to prove their innocence in the court of appeal rather than have their conviction quashed and be allowed a retrial. A particular focus for campaigners is a legal limit put on appeals despite a 2016 decision by supreme court judges when overturning the murder conviction of a Leicester man, Ameen Jogee, that the joint enterprise law “took a wrong turn” with an interpretation in 1984. For 32 years after that, people were convicted, having been involved in an incident of violence, if they “foresaw” that the victim could be killed by somebody else. The supreme court ruled that this was wrong, and that people could only be convicted of murder if they intended death or serious harm – and gave encouragement or assistance to the perpetrator.