The Supreme Court on Compensation for Miscarriages of Justice: Is it better that ten innocents are denied compensation than one guilty person receives it?

Abstract

The Supreme Court determined that a ‘fresh approach’ was needed in an attempt to bring some clarity to the issue of the eligibility for compensation of those who have had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal. The definition that the majority agreed upon was that ‘a new fact will show that a miscarriage of justice has occurred when it so undermines the evidence against the defendant that no conviction could possibly be based upon it’. This article argues that the judgment suffers from a failure to consider the purpose of the legislation; that it is unclear whether the test is normative or historical and that this presents a particular problem in cases relating to the Northern Ireland conflict. The Court focuses on the guilt of the appellant and excludes from its consideration any notion of culpability by the state, which is a cause for concern.

The Benefits of Social Capital for the Wrongfully Convicted: Considering the Promise of a Resettlement Model

“…These changes, like cuts to the legal aid budget, are apparently driven by the financial imperatives of a reduced public sector budget and a desire by government to restrict finite public resources to only the most meritorious cases . Whatever the cause, the result is a vast reduction in the number of successful applications from 39 out of 88 in 2004/05 to just one out of 37 in 2009/10 (Quirk and Requa ). Despite legal challenges, numbers have remained very low: just one successful application each year since 2013 (with two in 2015/16) of many tens of applications each year; for example, 51 in 2016/17 .…”

Don't Mention the War: TheCourt ofAppeal, theCriminalCasesReviewCommission and Dealing with the Past inNorthernIreland

“…Following the recent Supreme Court decision in Adams , it seems likely that successful applicants in these cases will be entitled to compensation. Whilst the number of CCRC applications from Northern Ireland is relatively low, it could quickly become unsustainable. Had the NICA held that confessions obtained from juveniles in the absence of legal advice and an appropriate adult were inadmissible, the CCRC and the Court, could have been overwhelmed.…”