This book focuses on the world's first publicly-funded body to review alleged miscarriages of justice, set up in the wake of notorious cases such as the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six. Bringing together critical perspectives from campaigners, prominent criminal appeal practitioners and academic specialists, it centres on the different aspects of the CCRC's tasks, in particular, the limitations placed on it by its governing statute that hinder its claimed independence from the appeal courts and its working practices which prevents the referral of cases in which victims may be factually innocent. The book compares the CCRC with existing systems in Scotland, the US and Canada that deal with alleged wrongful convictions. Thoroughly undermining its operations, this study argues that the CCRC's help to innocent victims of wrongful conviction is merely incidental.
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Review
'Michael Naughton's timely and authoritative book comprehensively destroys the myth that the central mission of the CCRC is to correct wrongful convictions of the innocent.' Professor Mike McConville, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
'This is a timely and provocative volume, which draws attention to the limitations of Criminal Cases Review Commission and similar institutions. .. It ought to act as a useful antidote to any sense of complacency on the part of those responsible for rectifying such miscarriages.' - Professor Peter Duff, former member of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
'The CCRC is an extremely important experiment - a government institution dedicated to investigating miscarriages of justice - that jurists all across the world are following with profound interest. Michael Naughton's thorough and insightful book raises critical issues the CCRC must address, especially the apparent tendency to elevate concerns about procedure above the CCRC's core mission to find a best approximation of the truth and fairness in an individual's case." - Barry Scheck, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Innocence Project, USA
'The Criminal Cases Review Commission: Hope for the Innocent? is a must read for any person with a serious interest in understanding what approaches may and may not work to help with overturning the conviction of innocent persons.'
- Hans Sherrer, Justice Denied blog
'The book presents a strong and passionate prosecution case against the CCRC.'
- Duncan Campbell, The Guardian
'The book may completely change the reader's perception of the CCRC via a thorough exploration of the entire organisation, its history, objectives and apparent failings. [...] Overall, the book provides a significant insight into the work of the CCRC.' - The Howard Journal
'This is a timely and provocative volume, which draws attention to the limitations of Criminal Cases Review Commission and similar institutions. .. It ought to act as a useful antidote to any sense of complacency on the part of those responsible for rectifying such miscarriages.' - Professor Peter Duff, former member of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
'The CCRC is an extremely important experiment - a government institution dedicated to investigating miscarriages of justice - that jurists all across the world are following with profound interest. Michael Naughton's thorough and insightful book raises critical issues the CCRC must address, especially the apparent tendency to elevate concerns about procedure above the CCRC's core mission to find a best approximation of the truth and fairness in an individual's case." - Barry Scheck, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Innocence Project, USA
'The Criminal Cases Review Commission: Hope for the Innocent? is a must read for any person with a serious interest in understanding what approaches may and may not work to help with overturning the conviction of innocent persons.'
- Hans Sherrer, Justice Denied blog
'The book presents a strong and passionate prosecution case against the CCRC.'
- Duncan Campbell, The Guardian
'The book may completely change the reader's perception of the CCRC via a thorough exploration of the entire organisation, its history, objectives and apparent failings. [...] Overall, the book provides a significant insight into the work of the CCRC.' - The Howard Journal
Book Description
This book focuses on the world's first publicly-funded body to review alleged miscarriages of justice, revealing that its help to innocent victims of wrongful conviction is merely incidental.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By Maggie
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The police fabricated evidence and committed perjury at your trial? Sorry, but there is "no real possibility" that the Court of Appeal will think that your conviction is unsafe.
Anyone who has received this kind of frustrating Statement of Reasons from the Criminal Cases Review Commission will recognise the "no real possibility" conclusion, which ends with the rejection of your application.
This well-researched book tells the story of how the CCRC came to be established, and gives the reasons why it does not function in the way it was intended to function. It explains why apparently rock-solid arguments for referring a case to the Court of Appeal are more often than not flattened under the steamroller of the "no real possibility" test.
There are chapters provided by the voluntary sector, by practitioners and by academics. One chapter heading in particular sums up the effect of the CCRC in five words: "Real Possibility or Fat Chance?"
This book should be read by anyone who is contemplating an application to the Commission. It could save hours of fruitless work on preparing a case which the CCRC is bound to turn down, and could possibly help you to frame an application in ways that stand a chance of being accepted.
(Since writing the above, two people have voted that what I have written is not helpful, which has led me to wonder in what ways it falls short. The original review is as objective as I can make it, and an accurate reflection of the content of the book. If you are looking for an endorsement of the CCRC, this is not the book for you. Michael Naughton writes in the opening chapter that the the "real possibility test" as laid down in the Criminal Appeals Act can mean that the Commission may "sanction the successful appeals of guilty offenders if their convictions satisfy the requirements of the appeal courts, whilst, at the same time, if it turns up evidence that indicates an applicant's factual innocence that was available at the original trial it may not constitute grounds for a referral". In other words, evidence of innocence is not necessarily enough to get a case back to the Court of Appeal:
"...the CCRC does not seek to refer cases of applicants that it finds or believes to be factually innocent. On the contrary, it reviews alleged miscarriages of justice in a legal sense, which is not to be confused with the wrongful conviction of the innocent...: the CCRC is about the correctness or otherwise of convictions according to the legal process."
The change in the law which brought the CCRC into existence was designed to remove the criminal appeal system from political influence, but placed it instead in a legal straitjacket. The book is an analysis of how this change adversely affects those who may be factually innocent but remain in prison because they do not meet the "real possibility test".
I have tried to make the review more helpful. If you don't like the premise of the book, please don't shoot the messenger. But if you think it's an irrevocably bad review, I hope you'll leave a comment to explain why.)
Anyone who has received this kind of frustrating Statement of Reasons from the Criminal Cases Review Commission will recognise the "no real possibility" conclusion, which ends with the rejection of your application.
This well-researched book tells the story of how the CCRC came to be established, and gives the reasons why it does not function in the way it was intended to function. It explains why apparently rock-solid arguments for referring a case to the Court of Appeal are more often than not flattened under the steamroller of the "no real possibility" test.
There are chapters provided by the voluntary sector, by practitioners and by academics. One chapter heading in particular sums up the effect of the CCRC in five words: "Real Possibility or Fat Chance?"
This book should be read by anyone who is contemplating an application to the Commission. It could save hours of fruitless work on preparing a case which the CCRC is bound to turn down, and could possibly help you to frame an application in ways that stand a chance of being accepted.
(Since writing the above, two people have voted that what I have written is not helpful, which has led me to wonder in what ways it falls short. The original review is as objective as I can make it, and an accurate reflection of the content of the book. If you are looking for an endorsement of the CCRC, this is not the book for you. Michael Naughton writes in the opening chapter that the the "real possibility test" as laid down in the Criminal Appeals Act can mean that the Commission may "sanction the successful appeals of guilty offenders if their convictions satisfy the requirements of the appeal courts, whilst, at the same time, if it turns up evidence that indicates an applicant's factual innocence that was available at the original trial it may not constitute grounds for a referral". In other words, evidence of innocence is not necessarily enough to get a case back to the Court of Appeal:
"...the CCRC does not seek to refer cases of applicants that it finds or believes to be factually innocent. On the contrary, it reviews alleged miscarriages of justice in a legal sense, which is not to be confused with the wrongful conviction of the innocent...: the CCRC is about the correctness or otherwise of convictions according to the legal process."
The change in the law which brought the CCRC into existence was designed to remove the criminal appeal system from political influence, but placed it instead in a legal straitjacket. The book is an analysis of how this change adversely affects those who may be factually innocent but remain in prison because they do not meet the "real possibility test".
I have tried to make the review more helpful. If you don't like the premise of the book, please don't shoot the messenger. But if you think it's an irrevocably bad review, I hope you'll leave a comment to explain why.)
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