The Miscarriage of Justice

For today's public affairs lecture we began to look at what an Innocence Project would entail. The Innocence Project is a non- profit legal organisation set up to proving the innocence of wrongly convicted people. Aspects such as DNA testing are set up, as well as reforming the criminal justice systems to prevent further injustice.
The projects are mostly handled by law students all over the country however places such as Winchester allow third year Journalism students to also take on cases.

Up to the mid 1980's citizens thought the justice system was fair.
However aspects such as the Guildford and Birmingham bombings in the 70's began to lead to the systems downfall.

The Guildford pub bombings occured on the 5th of October 1974. The IRA (Irish Republican Army) detonated two bombs at two different pubs killing four soldiers and one civilian, whilst a further sixty five were wounded. These attacks were the beginning of a year long campaign by the IRA service Unit until they were captured after the Balcome Street seige.
The Metropolitan police were under enormous pressure to apprehend the IRA bombers responsible for these attacks in England. In December of 1974 three men and one woman was arrested. They later became known as the "Guildford four".
They were falsely convicted of further bombings in 1975 whilst being held in prison for fifteen years. Their convictions were later overturned in the appeal courts after it was proved the convictions had been based on confessions obtained by torture, whilst evidence clearing them of charges was not reported by the police.

A similar case happened in Birmingham, during the year of 1974 where again, two pubs were bombed. However this time twenty one people were killed whilst one hundred and eighty two were injured. A considerable amount more than the Guildford bombings. The IRA was immediately and widely blamed however they denied all allegations of the attack. It was later discovered that a small militant group named "Red Flag" were believed to be responsible, however this was treated with skepticism by the police.
In the end the now known, "Birmingham Six" were convicted of carrying out the attack,
inevitably being charged with life imprisonement. They spent sixteen years in jail. At the conclusion of their second appeal, their convictions were quashed after scientific evidence and documents setting out the confessions were deemed unreliable. They were released on the 14th March 1991.

The CCRC

The Criminal Cases of Review system is there to protect people in the miscarriage of justice. They are the gate keeper in the court of appeal - you cannot appeal if you have not gone through the CCRC.
However numerous people are sceptical of the system, saying that it doesn't work.