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theyithian Keeping the British end up
Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Total posts: 11649 Location: Vermilion Sands Gender: Unknown |
 Posted: 25-05-2011 03:20 Post subject: |
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| The joke I saw that accompanied the mention of the graffiti is that Police have now moved on to investigating M. Khan's sexuality. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 06-07-2011 18:23 Post subject: |
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Will we now see justice?
| Quote: | Lynette White: Murder police 'manufactured case'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-14042058
In 2003 a client of Lynette White - Jeffrey Gafoor - admitted her murder
Eight ex-police officers manufactured a case against three innocent men following the murder of prostitute Lynette White, a jury has been told.
The 20-year-old was killed in 1988 in the flat in Cardiff where she worked.
The prosecution said men who became known as the Cardiff Three were jailed for a crime they did not commit.
At Swansea Crown Court the former officers deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and two other people deny perjury. The trial continues.
Ms White was found stabbed with more than 50 stab wounds on 14 February 1988 in an upstairs flat above a betting shop in Cardiff's docklands.
But detectives responsible for tracking down the killer were left stumped after nine months, the jury was told.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
... mould, manipulate, influence and fabricate evidence”
Nicholas Dean QC, prosecuting
Accusation against ex-officers
They went on to invent a fictional scenario which was "almost entirely a fabrication and was largely the product of the imagination," the court heard.
The former officers are accused of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by agreeing to "mould, manipulate, influence and fabricate evidence".
Nicholas Dean QC, prosecuting, told the jury that their combined actions were responsible for sending three innocent men to jail.
Stephen Miller, Yusef Abdullahi - who who has since died - and Tony Paris were convicted in 1990 of the murder.
Cousins Ronnie and John Actie, who stood trial with those who became known as the Cardiff Three, were acquitted.
But in 1992 the convictions were quashed by the court of appeal and they were released from jail.
Continue reading the main story
ACCUSED AND CHARGES
GRAHAM MOUNCHER (retired chief inspector)
THOMAS PAGE (retired chief inspector)
RICHARD POWELL (retired supt)
JOHN SEAFORD (retired det con)
MICHAEL DANIELS (retired det con)
PETER GREENWOOD (retired det con)
PAUL JENNINGS (retired det con)
PAUL STEPHEN (retired sergeant)
All the above are charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
VIOLET PERRIAM and IAN MASSEY are each charged with two counts of perjury.
In 2003 Jeffrey Gafoor, a client of Ms White, pleaded guilty to her murder and is now serving a life sentence.
Three of the men before the court are retired senior officers - Chief Insp Thomas Page, Chief Insp Graham Mouncher and Supt Richard Powell.
The five other retired police officers are Michael Daniels, Peter Greenwood and John Seaford, while Paul Jennings and Paul Stephen were serving officers at the time of arrest.
They are all jointly accused of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Violet Perriam and Ian Massey, with Mr Mouncher, are also each accused of two counts of perjury, which they deny.
Four other former policemen are also jointly accused of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and will stand trial separately next year.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said it believed this would be the biggest trial of police officers in British legal history.
Jurors have been told it is likely to last six months or longer.
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 21-07-2011 16:49 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Lynette White case: Angela Psaila 'directed by police'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-14225359
Angela Psaila said she 'felt like a dog being beaten'
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A woman interviewed over the murder of Cardiff prostitute Lynette White felt she was in a film and the police were the directors, a jury has heard.
Angela Psaila, 46, said officers wanted her to say what they wanted to hear.
Ms Psaila, whose original evidence helped to jail three innocent men, told Swansea Crown Court she had "absolutely nothing" to do with the murder.
Eight ex-police officers deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Two other people deny perjury.
Lynette White, 20, was murdered in Butetown in Cardiff on St Valentine's Day in 1988.
The three men wrongfully jailed for her murder, who became known as the Cardiff Three, were set free by the Court of Appeal in 1992.
In 2003 advances in DNA led police to Jeffrey Gafoor, now 46, who admitted murder and was jailed for life.
The eight ex-police officers have been accused of manufacturing a case against the three innocent men.
Ms Psaila, a former prostitute, said the police were "very forceful".
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
I was being treated like an animal - I want everyone in this court to know what they have done to me”
Angela Psaila
Witness
"There was a lot of shouting and they kept on telling me that I had been inside the flat when the murder took place," she said.
"I made it clear from the beginning that I had been babysitting. I wasn't there but they would not have it. As far as they were concerned I was there.
"It was like someone was making a film, a story. They were not going to listen to me."
Asked by Nick Dean QC, prosecuting, who was directing the film and who was in it, she replied: "The police and the five who were charged with murder."
She added, "They even said I took part in the murder. They were saying so and so said you were there, so and so said you have done this.
ACCUSED AND CHARGES
GRAHAM MOUNCHER (retired chief inspector)
THOMAS PAGE (retired chief inspector)
RICHARD POWELL (retired supt)
JOHN SEAFORD (retired det con)
MICHAEL DANIELS (retired det con)
PETER GREENWOOD (retired det con)
PAUL JENNINGS (retired det con)
PAUL STEPHEN (retired sergeant)
All the above deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Mr Mouncher also denies two counts of perjury
VIOLET PERRIAM and IAN MASSEY deny two counts of perjury.
"It was disgusting what they did to me. The police knew what they were doing. I felt like a dog being beaten. When I asked to leave (Butetown police station) they said 'no.' When I asked for a solicitor they said 'no.'
"I was being treated like an animal. I want everyone in this court to know what they have done to me. Everybody."
Ms Psaila said by 17 November, 1988, she had made six statements to police saying that in the early hours of February 14, 1988, she had been at home in St Clare's Court, Cardiff, looking after the young son of Leanne Vilday.
But on the 17th she was "forcefully" interviewed by then detective constables Michael Daniels and Bryan Gillard.
On being collected and driven to Butetown police station, Ms Psaila said: "I didn't feel I could argue with these men. I had no choice. I had to go. I said to myself: 'You had better do what you are told to do.' "
The trial continues. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 08-08-2011 19:16 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Lynette White case: Witness Leanne Vilday's 'baby fear'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-14448236
Senior detective Graham Mouncher was 'going on and on at me,' said Leanne Vilday
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Officers 'broke' Lynette witness
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A key witness in the original Lynette White murder trial claimed she changed her story after a detective warned her baby son would be beaten up if she was jailed.
Swansea Crown Court heard Leanne Vilday "cracked" after DI Graham Mouncher showed photos of "beaten up" children.
Three innocent men were jailed for murder but were later freed on appeal.
Eight ex-police officers deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Two other people deny perjury.
Ms Vilday told jurors she had made 16 statements saying she had been at the home of Michelle Actie in the early hours of 14 February 1988, when Ms White was stabbed to death at the flat where she worked as a prostitute in James Street, Butetown, Cardiff.
But on 6 December 1988, Ms Vilday was picked up "yet again" and taken to Butetown police station.
This time she was dealt with by "a different kind" of police officers, who shouted at her and told her they had a witness who could contradict her version of events.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
He showed me photographs of half caste children and said this will happen to my son when I go to prison. Little kids, beaten up”
Leanne Vilday
Angela Psaila, who she was staying with, was then brought into the room. She would not look at Ms Vilday and kept her head down as she said Ms Vilday had been there.
"I was shocked," said Ms Vilday. "I asked them what had they done to Angela but they did not respond. She was taken straight out of the room."
Ms Vilday said she was left alone "for hours" and then taken into a room by Det Insp Mouncher, who on his retirement had the rank of chief inspector.
"He was going on and on at me, that he had a witness. I was going mad with him. He was adamant I had been there.
'Corks being popped'
"He showed me photographs of half caste children and said this will happen to my son when I go to prison. Little kids, beaten up."
By then she said "my head had gone and I didn't know what to do."
Continue reading the main story
ACCUSED AND CHARGES
GRAHAM MOUNCHER (retired chief inspector)
THOMAS PAGE (retired chief inspector)
RICHARD POWELL (retired supt)
JOHN SEAFORD (retired det con)
MICHAEL DANIELS (retired det con)
PETER GREENWOOD (retired det con)
PAUL JENNINGS (retired det con)
PAUL STEPHEN (retired sergeant)
All the above deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Mr Mouncher also denies two counts of perjury
VIOLET PERRIAM and IAN MASSEY deny two counts of perjury.
She added: "I cracked and I said I had been there. He (DI Mouncher) was happy.
"He left and went into another room. I could hear bottles of champagne as if they knew they were going to crack the case that night.
"I could hear other voices, like a little party. I could hear corks being popped and hurraying."
Ms Vilday said she was led to another room, where she made a statement that would help to put three innocent men in jail.
Ms Vilday said that up to this stage she thought then Det Insp Richard Powell had been in charge of the investigation.
She described him as having been fair and said he had "never done anything wrong to me."
The Cardiff Three were convicted of murder in 1990 and jailed for life. They were released in 1992 when the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions.
Two others also stood trial in 1990 and were found not guilty.
In 2003 advances in DNA helped police trace Jeffrey Gafoor, who admitted Ms White's murder and was jailed for life.
Eight former officers are accused of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
One of them and two people who gave evidence are also charged with perjury.
They have all pleaded not guilty and the trial continues. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 13-09-2011 12:56 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Executed Taiwan airman Chiang Kuo-ching innocent
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14895747
By Cindy Sui
BBC News, Taipei
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A Taiwanese air force private executed 14 years ago for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl was innocent after all, a military court has ruled.
The court found there was no evidence linking the airman, Chiang Kuo-ching, to the crime.
The case has reignited debate in Taiwan over its use of the death penalty.
Mr Chiang was arrested in 1996 and executed in 1997. The case was reopened last year after a campaign by his parents.
A fresh investigation later found no evidence of Mr Chiang's presence at the scene of the crime and established that he was tortured into making a confession.
Since then, another man with a record of sexual abuse has been identified as a suspect.
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and the Ministry of National Defence have apologised to Mr Chiang's family.
But the officials who handled the original investigation will not be prosecuted. They are protected by a statute of limitations for public employees.
The ministry issued a statement regarding the court ruling on Tuesday, saying it has learned a lesson and will not allow similar miscarriages of justice to happen again.
Taiwan reintroduced the death penalty last year after a four-year moratorium. Since then, nine people on death row have been executed.
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| rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 20319 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 21-09-2011 09:27 Post subject: |
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Is this one of America's worst miscarriages of justice?
Death row inmate Troy Davis' last-ditch plea rejected
By Guy Adams
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
The life of Troy Davis, a convicted murderer at the centre of one of the most protracted and controversial death penalty cases in US history, has entered what is expected to be its final hours, after a panel in Atlanta rejected his last-ditch plea for clemency.
At around 7pm local time (midnight GMT) tomorrow, 42-year-old Davis will be escorted to an execution chamber at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison outside the city of Jackson. He is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection.
The execution comes after Georgia’s five-man Board of Pardons spent Monday hearing a plea for his sentence to be commuted. Supporters argue that Davis’s conviction for the murder of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989 was deeply flawed.
The Board heard submissions from several jurors who found Davis guilty but have since changed their mind, along with a selection of key prosecution witnesses who have recanted the evidence they gave at his trial in 1991. A spokesman refused to elaborate on why the board rejected his latest plea, or by what majority the decision was reached.
"I am utterly shocked and disappointed at the failure of our justice system at all levels to correct a miscarriage of justice,” said Brian Kammer, a lawyer for Davis. Reverend Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist, called the decision “one of the most egregious examples of injustice I have seen in years.”
The State of Georgia does not allow its Governor to intervene in capital cases, meaning that only two likely avenues remain open to Davis’s legal team in the run-up to tomorrow's execution: they must either convince the Board to reconsider, or persuade the District Attorney to withdraw the execution warrant.
Both are at best longshots. A third option would be for Davis to persuade the US Supreme Court to intervene. However his lawyers successfully used the Supreme Court to stave off a scheduled execution in 2008, and they believe it is highly unlikely to intervene in the same case twice.
Supporters of Davis argue that there is no physical evidence to support his conviction for shooting MacPhail, who was shot and killed after intervening to prevent a homeless man being beaten outside the store where he worked nights as a security guard. No murder weapon was ever found.
Seven of the nine prosecution witnesses who testified in court that they saw Davis carry out the attack have since recanted, saying they were pressured into giving evidence by investigators. Two further witnesses have since come forward saying that another man, Sylvester Coles, confessed to the crime.
The case has particular resonance in the Deep South, where a hugely disproportionate number of men on death row come from ethnic minorities. Davis has been characterised by supporters as an innocent black man who was hastily arrested and charged by white investigators, and wrongly convicted by a mostly white jury.
Demonstrators are gathering outside the prison where he will be put to death, while more than a million people have now signed a petition protesting his innocence. His execution is opposed by Amnesty International, the European Union, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
During the two decades since his conviction, Davis has been given no less than four execution dates, all of which have been cancelled at the last minute. In 2008, the US Supreme Court intervened two hours before he was scheduled to be killed, ordering a judge in Georgia to reconsider his conviction. However that judge, William T Moore, last year refused to grant clemency.
The family of MacPhail has meanwhile led calls for Davis to be put to death, saying that they have no doubt as to his guilt. The victim’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail, yesterday told CNN: “I will never have closure, but I may have some peace when he is executed.”
Asked about the slew of statesmen and celebrities - from Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict, to Desmond Tutu, Susan Sarandon, Bianca Jagger, and such chart-topping bands as Franz Ferdinand and Keane - who have very publicly taken a different view, she added: ‘I think these people are just against the death penalty. They don't know what happened.’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/is-this-one-of-americas-worst-miscarriages-of-justice-2357989.html |
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| rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 20319 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 22-09-2011 08:15 Post subject: |
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Troy Davis is executed in Georgia for shooting policeman
Death row inmate Troy Davis has been executed in the US state of Georgia for the fatal shooting of policeman Mark MacPhail in 1989.
Davis' death was delayed for hours while the US Supreme Court considered an 11th-hour appeal for clemency.
The 42-year-old's case was heavily disputed after most of the witnesses recanted or changed their testimony.
Outside the jail in Jackson, Georgia, there was a heavy police presence earlier as his supporters demonstrated.
Davis was convicted in 1991 of killing MacPhail, an off-duty police officer, but maintained he was innocent.
The US Supreme Court judges took more than four hours to issue their rejection of the final appeal, an unusually long time for such a ruling.
"The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice [Clarence] Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied," it read.
Davis continued to protest his innocence in the death chamber.
"I did not have a gun," he said, "For those about to take my life, may God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls."
Davis was pronounced dead at 23:08 (03:08 GMT Thursday), 15 minutes after the lethal injection began.
MacPhail was shot dead in July 1989 as he tried to help a homeless man who was being attacked in a Burger King car park.
Prosecutors said Davis was beating the man with a gun after demanding a beer from him.
No gun was found and no DNA evidence conclusively linked Davis to the murder.
On Wednesday morning, Davis' lawyers appealed to the county court responsible for Georgia's death row, but that was also rejected.
The legal team had argued that ballistic testing from the case was flawed.
The pardons board also dismissed an appeal to reconsider their decision on Monday to deny Davis clemency.
Prosecutors said they had no doubts as to his guilt.
"He had all the chances in the world," Anneliese MacPhail, the mother of the murdered policeman, said earlier in a phone interview with the Associated Press news agency.
"It has got to come to an end."
Davis counted among his supporters Pope Benedict XVI and former US President Jimmy Carter, as well as US conservative figures like representative Bob Barr and former FBI director William Sessions.
Outside the prison, hundreds of people gathered chanting: "They say, death row; we say, hell no".
Around 10 counter-demonstrators were also present, voicing support for the death penalty and for the family of MacPhail.
There was a heavy police presence, including large numbers of riot police, but no disturbances were reported.
Davis' execution date had already been halted three times.
Protests had taken on an international dimension since Monday's decision to deny clemency by the Georgia pardons board.
The Council of Europe had also called for Davis' sentence to be commuted.
Amnesty International and other groups organised protests at the US embassy in Paris, where 150 people gathered in Place de la Concorde, holding signs bearing Davis' image.
"We strongly deplore that the numerous appeals for clemency were not heeded," the French foreign ministry said after the execution.
In Washington DC dozens gathered outside the White House, in the hope that President Barack Obama might intervene at the last-minute.
But White House press secretary Jay Carney said it would not be appropriate for the president to interfere in specific cases of state prosecution, such as this one.
Reports suggested around a dozen people were arrested for refusing to co-operate with police.
Meanwhile in the US state of Texas another death row inmate, Lawrence Russell Brewer, was executed on Wednesday evening - in a very different case.
In 1998, white supremacist gang member Brewer, 44, dragged a black man chained to the back of a pick-up truck along a road until he died.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15013860 |
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| Spudrick68 Great Old One Joined: 08 Jun 2008 Total posts: 1096 Location: sunny Morecambe Age: 45 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 22-09-2011 12:15 Post subject: |
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"Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
blood on the leaves, blood at the root,
black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze,
strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees."
Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday |
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| MrRING Android Futureman Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Total posts: 4195 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 22-09-2011 17:05 Post subject: |
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| It seems like with Troy Davis there was no doubt he was one of two guys beating up the homeless man, but since the other guy involved in the beating testified it was Davis that did the shooting, Davis got fingered. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 27-01-2012 01:47 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Lynette White police corruption trial: Documents found as DPP orders review
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-16737162
Lynette White was murdered in a flat in Cardiff's docklands in February 1988
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
Watchdog to review Lynette trial
Lynette trial 'costly farce' - MP
Police corruption case collapses
Documents have been found after they were thought to have been destroyed, which had led to the collapse of the UK's biggest police corruption trial.
The announcement came as emerged that a review has been ordered into the end of the trial of eight officers, who were all cleared in December.
They were involved in the original investigation of the 1988 murder of Cardiff prostitute Lynette White.
The review has been ordered by Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer.
The officers were acquitted of perverting the course of justice. A judge at Swansea Crown Court ruled that they could not get a fair trial because evidence was believed lost.
But it has now been announced that the information has now been found.
Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate will review the case which had cost up to an estimated £30m.
Continue reading the main story
IPCC STATEMENT
Commissioner Sarah Green said: "The Independent Police Complaints Commission has now verified that the documents that the Lynette White trial at Swansea Crown Court on December 1 2011 was told may have been destroyed have been discovered and were not shredded as first thought.
"The court was told that some inquiries had been made about documents relating to complaints made to the IPCC itself and that it seemed that these documents may have been shredded on the orders of SWP (South Wales Police) senior investigating officer Chris Coutts.
"The documents were found in the original boxes that the IPCC had sent those files to South Wales Police as part of the trial disclosure process in 2009.
"These boxes were still in the possession of SWP and have subsequently been verified.
"The IPCC investigation has not yet concluded and will also need to establish what happened to these two files of documents.
The IPCC will also continue to liaise with the review being carried out by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
"We have of course informed the Director of Public Prosecutions about the discovery of these documents.
"The IPCC will of course publish its findings in due course."
It had been alleged that the former South Wales Police officers had manufactured the case against five men after the murder at a flat in Cardiff's docklands - three of whom were jailed for life before being released on appeal.
The retired officers all pleaded not guilty to the charge and were cleared after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) offered no evidence against the defendants, halting the five-month trial
It emerged that files relating to complaints by an original defendant had been destroyed - which would undermine the defence's confidence in the disclosure process.
But now it has been revealed that the information has been found, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) which is conducting its own inquiry after being called in by South Wales Police.
It says the documents have been found still in the possession of South Wales Police and, as part of its inquiry, it needs to establish what happened to them.
A CPS spokesperson said: "While this is clearly a significant discovery, it is for the IPCC to determine the circumstances and conclude their investigation as swiftly as possible."
Alun Michael, MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, said the review by Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) "must leave no stone unturned".
"We need to know why things went wrong, why so much money was spent on the investigation and then it wasn't carried through," he said.
Jeffrey Gafoor was eventually jailed for life in 2003 for Lynette White's murder
Director of Public Prosecutions Mr Starmer said he had asked HMCPSI to carry out the review of the management of the prosecution in the perjury trial.
"It is important that the public can have confidence in the way the CPS conducts its cases and the Inspectorate will examine the issues with the utmost thoroughness," he said.
"Inevitably this will take time but will be completed as soon as is practicable and a report prepared for the DPP.
"South Wales Police has decided to refer their part in this matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission and we will work in tandem with the IPCC inquiry into what happened.
"Both organisations are committed to sharing all relevant information with each other and arrangements are being made to ensure there is meaningful liaison between the two inquiries."
Security guard
Tony Paris, Yusef Abdullahi and Stephen Miller - who became known as the Cardiff Three - were wrongly jailed for life in 1990 for the murder of Miss White.
They were freed in 1992 after their convictions were quashed.
The case was reopened in September 2000 when new evidence was brought to light. Advances in DNA led to the arrest of security guard Jeffrey Gafoor who in July 2003 was jailed for life for the murder.
In 2004 the IPCC began an inquiry to establish what went wrong with the original investigation into the murder.
A year later former police officers were arrested and questioned on suspicion of false imprisonment, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and misconduct in public office.
Former officers Graham Mouncher, Thomas Page, Richard Powell, John Seaford, Michael Daniels, Peter Greenwood, Paul Jennings, Paul Stephen have now all been acquitted.
Civilians Violet Perriam and Ian Massey also denied two counts of perjury and were also cleared. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 19-05-2012 12:55 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Sam Hallam: 100 more convictions 'potentially unsafe'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18128330
Further evidence placed Hallam elsewhere the night of the killing
Related Stories
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Convicted murderer handed freedom
There are about 100 potentially unsafe convictions being investigated, according to a group that campaigns for people wrongly put behind bars.
Innocence Network UK has "serious doubts" over scores of convictions, said its founder Michael Naughton of the University of Bristol.
His comments come as Sam Hallam, 24, spends his first weekend of freedom after seven years in prison.
The Court of Appeal ruled this week that his conviction was "unsafe".
Mr Hallam was jailed in 2005 for a minimum of 12 years over the death of Essayas Kassahun, 21, in Clerkenwell, central London, in 2004.
After his release, he said: "I don't want anyone else ever to suffer what I've been through."
Mr Hallam, who lost a conviction appeal in 2007, also thanked the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and Thames Valley Police for the "thorough investigation" they carried out into his case.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Dr Naughton said that it was a "fantastic time" for Sam Hallam and his family. But he warned that it is not an isolated case.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
The system isn't about innocence and guilty in the way that ordinary people might think it is”
Michael Naughton
Innocence Network UK
"I'm not saying that there are thousands and thousands of people in prison who shouldn't be there. There are certainly thousands of people in prison who say they shouldn't be there but that's a different matter.
"We have a hundred cases being worked on in our 26 Innocence projects and universities around the country.
"And those universities are serious universities - not just Bristol University but Cambridge, Exeter, Durham. There's a long list of universities working on these cases."
He criticised the CCRC for "factually guilty" people having their convictions overturned on technicalities.
"The system isn't about innocence and guilty in the way that ordinary people might think it is. And Sam Hallam overturned his case because there's non-disclosure in his case, so there's an abuse of process.
"In the cases we are working on, we have serious doubts about the evidence leading to their convictions, because of the research and the work that we've done."
But many of these cases won't be referred because they don't fulfil CCRC criteria about evidence available at the time of the original trial, he said.
"What we are calling for are reforms of the CCRC so that it can be better placed to assist people who apply to it who might be innocent."
Miscarriage of justice
Richard Foster, chairman of the CCRC, said: "The test that we apply, the test of safety, is a statutory test. It's not one that we made up ourselves.
"Safety is a test for all of us. If you or I is being prosecuted in court, then you want the processes to be fair as well as the outcome being the right one."
People can be guilty but still suffer a miscarriage of justice, Mr Foster said, pointing to the example of a woman who pleaded guilty to stealing a passport, money and trying to escape the country.
What on the outside may look like a clear case of guilt was not, he said, because she was trafficked to the UK, held in a house and forced into prostitution. She escaped and committed the crimes trying to flee the country.
"Justice was only done because we referred that case," he said. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 24-05-2012 00:49 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Judges overturn 30 year old terror convictions
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18175468
Mr McDonald was arrested in Derry's Creggan estate in December 1976
Two men who admitted to terrorism offences as teenagers more than 30 years ago were not safely convicted, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Judges decided confessions made in custody by Stephen McCaul, a Belfast man who has since died, and Peter McDonald were both unreliable.
Mr McDonald, from Londonderry, will seek compensation, his lawyer said.
Similar appeals by two other Derry men, James Brown and Eric Wright, were dismissed.
All four signed admission statements during police interviews when they were aged 15 or 16 during the 1970s. None of them had access to a solicitor or were accompanied by a parent.
Under Judges' Rules in operation at the time a lawyer or appropriate adult was to be present for the questioning of youths.
Shots
The four cases were referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Delivering judgment, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan said confessions made in breach of the Judges' Rules were admissible under emergency provisions legislation unless obtained by torture or inhuman treatment.
Mr McDonald was arrested near an incident where shots were fired at an army Land Rover in Derry's Creggan estate in December 1976.
He later confessed to membership of the IRA's youth wing, Fianna Na h'Eireann, and to trying to lure a military patrol into the area.
But with no such trap planned, the court held that his first admission was invented.
Unease
Sir Declan, sitting with Lord Justices Higgins and Girvan, said they were left with a sense of unease about the reliability of Mr McDonald's statements.
"We conclude that these convictions were not safe and that this appeal should be allowed."
The challenge brought in the case of Mr McCaul and continued by his father following his death in 1995 was also allowed.
He was arrested at his home in Twinbrook in March 1979 and later admitted during interview to his part in two bus hijackings and two burglaries where shotguns were stolen.
A consultant psychiatrist later found he had a mental age of seven, an IQ of between 50 and 60, was highly suggestible and could not have dictated the written admissions allegedly attributed to him by the police.
Ruling his conviction unsafe, Sir Declan said: "In this circumstances the absence of a solicitor or independent adult gives rise to real concerns about the reliability of the admissions."
Sadness
However, the judges dismissed the appeals by Mr Brown and Mr Wright after finding no corroborating evidence of alleged police ill-treatment.
Their solicitor, Paddy MacDermott, vowed to go to the Surpreme Court in a bid to clear their names.
Mr MacDermott also represented Mr McDonald and confirmed: "We are delighted that his appeal has been allowed and we will now pursue a compensation claim on his behalf for a miscarriage of justice in relation to the time he spent in prison and the stain on his character which has existed for 36 years."
The lawyer for the McCaul family expressed sadness that his client had not lived to see the outcome.
Conor Houston, of John J Rice and Co Solicitors, said: "Mr McCaul's mother also campaigned for many years but she has also sadly passed away.
"She was hounded by the ordeal her son endured until her death.
"This man should never have been convicted, given that he had the mental age of a seven-year-old and was held in custody for over 52 hours with no access to legal advice or any independent adult." |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 21-06-2012 22:54 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Last ever UK death sentence conviction quashed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18525631
Liam Holden, the last person to be sentenced to death in the United Kingdom, is cleared by the Court of Appeal of murdering a soldier in west Belfast in 1972
Related Stories
'My water torture nightmare'
Death penalty appeal to go ahead
Last death sentence man appeals
A Belfast man, who was the last person to be sentenced to death in the United Kingdom, has been cleared of murdering a soldier in 1972.
Liam Holden spent 17 years in jail after being convicted. His death sentence was commuted to a life term.
At the time, he told the court he was forced to sign a confession after soldiers threatened to kill him and used water torture on him.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal in Belfast overturned his conviction.
Clear guidelines
The Crown had previously said it would not object to the holding of an appeal after assessing evidence contained in a confidential annexe of material.
This showed that by interrogating Mr Holden for more than three hours, the military was in breach of clear government guidelines that suspects arrested by soldiers should be handed over immediately to the RUC for questioning.
The Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, sitting with two other appeal court judges, said on Thursday that as evidence of the Army guidelines had not been made known to either the defence or prosecution teams during his trial, the appeal was being allowed and the conviction quashed.
Speaking outside court, Mr Holden said: "I'm delighted that after 40 years its over. But it's a pity my parents weren't alive to get this result."
Although the death penalty was abolished in Britain in 1969, it remained in Northern Ireland until 1973.
Mr Holden was 19 and working as a chef when he was taken from his home and brought to an Army post at Blackmountain school, where he was held for almost five hours.
By the end of his time in military custody he had agreed to sign a statement admitting he had killed Private Frank Bell, who died three days after being shot in the head as he patrolled Springfield Avenue, west Belfast, in September 1972.
"By the time they were finished with me I would have admitted to killing JFK," he said in an interview earlier this week.
Mr Holden said he was subjected to sustained torture and then threatened that he would be shot if he did not confess to the killing.
"I was beaten and they told me to admit I had shot the soldier, but I said that wasn't true because I didn't," he said.
"Then six soldiers came into the cubicle where I was being held and grabbed me.
"They held me down on the floor and one of them placed a towel over my face, and they got water and they started pouring the water through the towel all round my face, very slowly.
"After a while you can't get your breath but you still try to get your breath, so when you were trying to breathe in through your mouth you are sucking the water in, and if you try to breathe in through your nose, you are sniffing the water in.
"It was continual, a slow process, and at the end of it you basically feel like you are suffocating."
Mr Holden said he eventually confessed after he was threatened with being shot.
Analysis
Peter Taylor
BBC News
At the time in 1972, many people would not have believed allegations of torture.
The Conservative government and the majority unionist community would have dismissed such claims as Provisional IRA propaganda.
It is shocking that someone could be locked up for 17 years as a result of a confession that, it would appear, was extracted in this horrific way.
What is equally shocking is that it has taken decades for cases like this to come to light and for these apparent miscarriages of justice to be put right.
'My water torture nightmare' |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 22-06-2012 22:05 Post subject: |
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An unusual result.
| Quote: | Police inspector Richard Munro withheld Fife murder evidence
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-18556183
Richard Munro was a detective with Fife Constabulary
Related Stories
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A former policeman has been convicted of withholding evidence from prosecutors while investigating a murder in Fife 17 years ago.
Richard Munro, 53, was found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
As a detective inspector he led the investigation into the killing of Andrew Forsyth in Dunfermline in 1995.
Steven Johnston and Billy Allison were jailed for murder then later acquitted.
Campaign group, Miscarriages of Justice Scotland, said the case was the first time that a corrupt policeman in the UK, in relation to a miscarriage of justice, had been convicted of a wrongdoing.
Munro's trial heard that he engineered the case which led to the Mr Johnston and Mr Allison's convictions for the murder of Mr Forsyth during a drunken row.
He withheld information from prosecutors which could have helped the two men's defence.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
You should be under no illusion that a custodial sentence is inevitable in this case”
Judge Lord Doherty
He was finally caught after the pair's defence lawyers managed to show that the retired detective chief superintendent could have acted illegally at an Appeal Court hearing in March 2006.
Appeal Court judges thought Munro's actions constituted so much potential illegality that they had no choice but to quash the pair's convictions.
Lothian and Borders Police spent two years investigating Munro and found they had enough evidence to prosecute him.
He was brought to trial earlier this year and after 11 weeks of proceedings was convicted by a majority verdict by the seven men and eight women of the jury.
Witness statements
After hearing the verdict, judge Lord Doherty deferred sentence until next month for background reports.
He told Munro: "You should be under no illusion that a custodial sentence is inevitable in this case."
The Andrew Forsyth investigation was the first time Munro was put in charge of a murder probe.
When Mr Forsyth's body was discovered on 9 November 1995, Mr Munro decided that he had been murdered on 3 November.
He told prosecutors that they should base the 3 November date as the time of death in their prosecution against Johnson and Allison.
But as the murder probe progressed, policemen uncovered evidence that Mr Forsyth had been alive on and after 3 November.
Mr Forsyth was killed at his home in Dunfermline in 1995
Munro then suppressed witness statements and on some occasions even altered the content of what people had told officers.
He failed to tell prosecutors about how he had access to information which showed Mr Forsyth had been alive after 3 November.
During the trial, Munro's defence QC Mark Stewart said his client had accepted that he had made mistakes during the probe.
However, he said this was because he lacked training, managerial experience and had been misled by junior colleagues.
At the end of proceedings, the former detective's wife - who accompanied her husband to court during every day of the trial - started crying loudly.
He turned to her - and said: "It's alright."
A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police, who carried out the investigation into Munro's conduct, said: "It is vital that the public have confidence in the integrity of police investigations, and today's conviction demonstrates that the police service in Scotland will act professionally and effectively when investigating crimes of this nature."
John McManus of Miscarriages of Justice Scotland said: "This is a victory for justice. It's the first time in British history that a corrupt policeman - in relation to a miscarriage of justice - has been convicted of a wrongdoing.
"Hopefully it sends a message to police today that they won't get away with "fitting people up".
"But sadly it doesn't catch the killer of Drew Forsyth - who's been free for the last 16 years." |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 14-07-2012 13:14 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | FBI forensic review could free thousands of prisoners
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22055-fbi-forensic-review-could-free-thousands-of-prisoners.html
18:15 12 July 2012 by Sara Reardon
Thousands of people jailed on the basis of forensic evidence could walk free as the US criminal justice system looks to bring forensics in line with modern science.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Department of Justice announced this week that they will review more than 10,000 criminal cases dating back to 1985. These are instances in which guilty verdicts were based on forensic hair and fibre analyses, along with other methods that no longer stand up to scientific scrutiny.
The review follows numerous investigations that have cast doubt on the validity of most forensic methods. Firearms and bullet analysis, for instance, can wrongly place innocent people at a crime scene.
In a strongly worded 2009 report, the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) said that with the exception of nuclear DNA evidence, "no forensic method has been rigorously shown to have the capacity to consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a connection between evidence and a specific individual".
But even DNA evidence is fallible: different labs can return very different results for the same sample.
Paul Cates of the Innocence Project in New York, which campaigns for people wrongly convicted on the basis of DNA evidence, says that to date, 292 people have had their conviction overturned by follow-up DNA analyses. "In half of those cases, there had been some sort of forensics problem," he says.
Cates backs a recommendation in the NAS report, which called for a national body to set standards for forensic science so that all analysts would be consistent. "We're hopeful that Congress will take up this cause in short order to ensure that what passes as forensics is science," says Cates. |
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