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English law has no official means of correcting a "perverse" verdict (conviction of a<br />
defendant on the basis of insufficient evidence). Appeals are based exclusively on new<br />
evidence or errors by the judge or prosecution (but not the defense), or jury<br />
irregularities. A reversal occurred, however, in the 1930s when William Herbert<br />
Wallace was exonerated of the murder of his wife. There is no right to a trial without jury<br />
(except during the troubles in Northern Ireland or in the case where there is a significant<br />
risk of jury-tampering, such as organized crime cases, when a judge or judges presided<br />
without a jury).<br />
During the early 1990s, a<br />
series of high-profile cases<br />
turned out to be miscarriages<br />
of justice. Many resulted from<br />
police fabricating evidence to<br />
convict people they thought<br />
were guilty, or simply to get a<br />
high conviction rate.<br />
The West Midlands Serious<br />
Crime Squad became<br />
notorious for such practices,<br />
and was disbanded in 1989.<br />
In 1997 the Criminal Cases<br />
Review Commission was<br />
established specifically to<br />
examine possible miscarriages of justice. However, it still requires either strong new<br />
evidence of innocence, or new proof of a legal error by the judge or prosecution. For<br />
example, merely insisting you are innocent and the jury made an error, or stating there<br />
was not enough evidence to prove guilt, is not enough. It is not possible to question the<br />
jury's decision or query on what matters it was based. The waiting list for cases to be<br />
considered for review is at least two years on average.<br />
In 2002, the NI Court of Appeal made an exception to who could avail of the right to a<br />
fair trial in R v Walsh: "... if a defendant has been denied a fair trial it will almost be<br />
inevitable that the conviction will be regarded unsafe, the present case in our view<br />
constitutes an exception to the general rule. ... the conviction is to be regarded as safe,<br />
even if a breach of Article 6(1) were held to have occurred in the present<br />
case." (See Christy Walsh (Case).)<br />
Scotland<br />
The Criminal Appeal (Scotland) Act 1927 increased the jurisdiction of the Scottish Court<br />
of Criminal Appeal following the miscarriage of justice surrounding the Trial of Oscar<br />
Slater.<br />
Reflecting Scotland's own legal system, which differs from that of the rest of the United<br />
Kingdom, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) was established<br />
Page 41 of 166
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