Latest news with #legalReform
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Andrew Malkinson ‘not finished' fighting for reform after wrongful conviction
Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, says his fight to reform the legal system's handling of miscarriages of justice is far from over. The 59-year-old had his conviction overturned in 2023 after years protesting his innocence. Mr Malkinson, who told The Sunday Times his 'life was desolated' by the wrongful conviction, says he is determined to change the justice system, starting with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). 'I haven't finished. I want to change a lot more,' he said. 'It's a good feeling that something so dreadful and tragic is leading to real change.' It comes amid news Dame Vera Baird KC will become the interim chairwoman of the CCRC. The barrister will take up the post from June 9 until December 8 next year, and is tasked with carrying out an urgent review into the running of the independent body and making sure lessons have been learnt from previous cases. Mr Malkinson said he remained 'incandescent' at the CCRC, as well as the Government's compensation scheme, which makes it difficult for wrongly-convicted people to receive payouts. 'This is an assault on innocent people,' he said. 'It's an assault on the public, because any member of the public could end up where I was. Anybody could be the next victim, because there will be more.' Despite having his conviction quashed in 2023, he had to wait until February to get his first compensation payment. Mr Malkinson had been living on benefits and food banks from his release until then. Under the 2014 Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act, payments are only awarded to people who can prove innocence beyond a reasonable doubt. Ministry of Justice data showed that only 6.5% of people who had applied for compensation due to a miscarriage of justice between April 2016 and March 2024 were awarded payouts. Of 591 people who applied, 39 were granted compensation. Figures showed that 35 have since received money, with average amounts totalling £68,000. In a statement in February, lawyer Toby Wilton welcomed the payment, but said the £1 million cap on compensation payouts should be lifted. This is currently the maximum amount that can be paid to victims of miscarriages of justice who are wrongly jailed for at least 10 years. 'The Government should lift the current cap on compensation, and end the twisted quirk that whilst awards under other compensation schemes are excluded from assessment for benefits,' he said.
BBC News
5 days ago
- General
- BBC News
New chair to do 'whatever it takes' to reform legal appeals body
The new interim chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has told the BBC she will do "whatever it takes" to reform the embattled legal appeals body. Dame Vera Baird KC said the CCRC seemed "incapable of learning from their mistakes" and she wanted to "root out" the culture causing them. Dame Vera has been tasked by the government with carrying out a review of the CCRC and to increase public confidence in the organisation and its work investigating potential miscarriages of justice. The former victims commissioner and government minister was appointed on Tuesday after her predecessor Helen Pitcher quit following the fall-out from the wrongful conviction of Andrew Malkinson. Speaking to BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Dame Vera described the CCRC as a "hugely important organisation for our criminal justice system" but criticised the agency in its current state."They seem incapable of learning from their mistakes," she said, later referencing that Mr Malkinson's case was not dissimilar to that of Victor Nealon - a man who also spent 17 years behind bars after wrongfully being convicted of attempted rape."Even as the CCRC was looking at an identical case in Malkinson [they were] failing to refer to [past cases]," Dame Vera said. "There is some inability to grasp the level of failure that is going on."She also said she is writing to body's chief executive Karen Kneller to "discuss her position" and Malkinson was accused in 2003 of raping a woman in Greater Manchester. He was later convicted and jailed for life despite no DNA linking him to the spent 17 years in prison - during which time he applied twice for his case to be reviewed by the CCRC but was turned down - and was eventually released in December 2020. Only after new evidence pointed to another potential suspect in January 2023 was his case referred to the Court of Appeal. Mr Malkinson's conviction was overturned in July 2023.A year later, an independent review found Mr Malkinson had been completely failed by the CCRC with the damning report concluding he could have been freed five years after being initially handling of the case led to Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood seeking to sack Ms Pitcher as CCRC later resigned in January. When asked if she fears there may be other cases similar to Malkinson's out there, Dame Vera said there is doubt around whether the CCRC is doing their job in a "rigorous and positive way at all". "There is a question mark over that," she said, "which stems from the cases we know that have been catastrophically handled. I think as we dig a little deeper, and as I talk to people who tried to get cases referred, we may find more."Since the Malkinson case the CCRC has initiated an internal review of cases in which DNA was an element in convictions of people for the most serious crimes. As well as planning to meet with Ms Kneller, she said she intends to talk to lawyers and some of the people who have not had their miscarriages of justice properly Vera, a criminal barrister, became an MP in 2001 and was solicitor general during Gordon Brown's administration between 2007 and 2010, one of the top legal posts in went on to become the police and crime commissioner for Northumbria Police and then the victims commissioner for England and Wales between 2019 and 2022.
