July 18th 2024.
Andrew Malkinson, a man who spent 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, stood outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London with a heavy heart. He had finally been exonerated after years of fighting for his innocence, but a recent review revealed that this could have happened nearly a decade earlier. The review found that the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body responsible for examining potential miscarriages of justice, had failed Mr. Malkinson and obstructed his pursuit of justice.
In 2003, Mr. Malkinson was convicted of rape and spent the next 17 years behind bars. However, last summer, his conviction was finally overturned after new DNA evidence was discovered. It was a long and difficult journey for Mr. Malkinson, who had been protesting his innocence from the very beginning. In 2009, he and the legal charity Appeal applied for his case to be reviewed by the CCRC, but their request was denied. The commission refused to order further forensic testing or refer the case for appeal, citing concerns over costs.
In 2020, a second application was also rejected. However, crucial DNA evidence had been available since 2007, but it was not until last year that a new suspect was arrested. This raised questions about why the evidence had not been properly examined earlier. Chris Henley KC, who was tasked with conducting the review, uncovered a series of serious failings and missed opportunities by the CCRC to correct the miscarriage of justice. In fact, the body had even considered rejecting the requests for a referral to the Court of Appeal for a third time.
In his report, Mr. Henley made nine recommendations for improvement, stating that the CCRC had failed Mr. Malkinson. He also pointed out that it was only due to the efforts of Appeal that the new DNA evidence was obtained and the case was ultimately referred by the CCRC. It was a missed opportunity in 2009, and again in 2018 when a second application was received. Mr. Henley also noted that the similarities between Mr. Malkinson's case and another overturned conviction, that of Victor Nealon, should have been recognized and followed by the CCRC. If this had been done, Mr. Malkinson's conviction could have been overturned almost 10 years earlier.
In response to the review, Mr. Malkinson expressed his frustration with the CCRC, stating that the body had obstructed his fight for justice and cost him an extra decade of wrongful imprisonment. He called for the entire system to be torn down and rebuilt, and for the resignation or dismissal of the current leadership team. James Burley, who led Appeal's investigation into Mr. Malkinson's case, echoed these sentiments and criticized the CCRC for being a "broken safety net."
The current chair of the CCRC, Helen Pitcher, offered Mr. Malkinson an unreserved apology in April when she received the findings of the review. In response to the report, the CCRC stated that they accepted the recommendations and were already working to address them. Meanwhile, a separate inquiry into Mr. Malkinson's case, ordered by the previous government, is still ongoing. It is clear that there are serious flaws in the current system, and it is essential that these issues are addressed and corrected to prevent future miscarriages of justice.
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