CHALLENGING A BROKEN JUSTICE SYSTEM IMPACT REPORT 2019

1 IMPACT REPORT: INTRODUCTION CONTENTS WHO ARE APPEAL? FIGHTING MISCARRIAGES OF 01 INTRODUCTION JUSTICE IN ENGLAND & WALES

I launched APPEAL in 2014 after We believe the ensuing nearly a decade spent fighting miscarriages of justice can be 04 A JUSTICE SYSTEM the death penalty and wrongful most effectively combatted by convictions in Louisiana. Returning an integrated team of lawyers, IN DENIAL to the UK, I was optimistic about investigators and campaigners working in its famously fair and working full time on exposing both high-minded system. How wrong individual “impact” cases and the MISSION: I was. underlying causes of system failure. 08 HOW WE WORK APPEAL is a non-profit law practice Although “British justice” is APPEAL is that team, and has made committed to fighting miscarriages often said to be the best in the significant progress in the last five of justice and demanding reform. world, I have found it to be more years thanks to the support of intransigent than its American progressive funders who recognise AIMS & OBJECTIVES: counterpart. In fact, I would rather appeal cases as the engine that can be the victim of a miscarriage drive reform. APPEAL is the first 12 OUR IMPACT We provide investigation and legal of justice in New Orleans than step in our longer journey towards advocacy for victims of unsafe Newcastle. America’s tradition of bringing a non-profit model for convictions and unfair sentences open justice has led to heightened criminal defence to this country who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer public awareness of the that for both trials and appeals, based themselves. We use individual cases system’s fallibility. But on this side on the holistic, investigation- 16 WHAT NEXT? as leverage for system-wide criminal of the pond, it feels like public focused, community-based models justice reform by educating the concern with miscarriages of pioneered in the US. media, parliament, criminal justice justice ended with the Birmingham policy makers, the legal profession Six and Guildford Four. Please read this report, learn and the public about how and why about the catastrophes concealed 18 THANK YOU miscarriages of justice occur and British criminal justice is a system beneath the brand of “British what needs to change to stop them. in denial. justice,” and consider how you can become part of our work. VISION: Our justice system is at breaking Our vision is for a criminal point, with judges and juries being justice system that treats forced to make decisions about miscarriages of justice as dire sending people to prison based emergencies that require prompt, on a fraction of the evidence Emily Bolton, thorough investigation by legal for or against them - evidence Director and Founder of APPEAL representatives, and urgent review that has not been adequately by the courts. We fight for a system scrutinised by the prosecution or that faces its mistakes rather the defence because of rules and than hides from them, in which resource constraints that curtail the human cost of miscarriages of transparency and accountability. justice are recognised and reduced, and where every person working in the system learns from errors in order to avoid repeating them.

2 3 A JUSTICE SYSTEM IMPACT IN DENIAL REPORT: SYSTEM A JUSTICE Legal Aid restrictions mean Legal Aid rule changes defence don’t mean many defendants are conduct defence investigation expected to pay large financial IN DENIAL and there is no funding contributions towards their provided to review police files. representation. If they can’t afford them, many end up A PERFECT STORM FOR “Reviewing unused representing themselves. prosecution material MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE without remuneration is “I have prosecuted trials fundamentally unfair and against unrepresented increasingly prejudicial defendants. It is a complete to the defendant.” sham and a pale imitation of justice” • Justice Committee • Prosecutor quoted in Under pressure to find a Transform Justice report suspect, the police apply “tunnel vision” so their The privatisation of the investigation focuses heavily The prosecution is meant Forensic Science Service and on evidence pointing towards to hand over any material falling standards in forensic one suspect, rather than gathered by the police which labs means defendants can be exploring other leads. undermines their case or convicted on dodgy science. assists the defence. However, “Officers are reluctant to police don’t flag up such “The evidence we received investigate a defence or take material in a third of cases. points to failings in the use statements that might assist Failures to hand over vital of forensic science in the the defence or undermine our evidence remain... case” criminal justice system and these can be attributed to “...the biggest single cause an absence of high-level • Prosecutors’ focus group of miscarriages of justice” notes obtained by APPEAL leadership, a lack of funding and an insufficient level of • Former Criminal Cases research and development.” Review Commission Chair

• Lords’ Science and Technology Select Committee

4 5 IMPACT REPORT: FAILING TO CORRECT MISTAKES 7

CCRC 2018/19 annual report annual 2018/19 CCRC The CCRC’s “won’t seek, “won’t don’t CCRC’s The notis it means approach find” sending convictions back to the Court Appeal. of the referred CCRC In 2018/19 just 0.9% of the 1,449 cases to the Court reviewed they of Appeal. was That just 13 cases. • Because not mistakes are Parliament exposed, being the shown is being not evidence it needs to justify reforms that would prevent justice of miscarriages the first in place. occurring

CCRC 2018/19 annual report annual 2018/19 CCRC Joint report APPEALJoint by and Cardiff Law School Project Innocence 90% applicants of to the CCRC unrepresented were despite lawyersby 2018/19, in those with legal representation succeed to likely more being referralto a getting back in the Court Appeal. of • Created as to Created a conduit the Court Appeal, of the Commission functions now as failing is a roadblock. It to read and transcripts obtain filespolice is it left toand the convicted prisonerwrongly to supportto evidence find their case. But the system puts Underobstacles in their way. our current post-conviction law... difficult is incredibly “...it for the convicted wrongly to and access police anddiscover CPS documents and exhibits that could help exonerate them.” • Former Criminal Cases CommissionReview Chair Once the CourtOnce Appeal has of anturned appellant down, rights no more have they to appeal the Court. to Instead to persuade the have they Criminal Cases Review send to (CCRC) Commission their case back. the“Over last have decade we had budget our in real cut about a thirdterms by and seen workload our have we increase about 70%” by •

Court of Appeal (Criminal annualDivision) reports The CourtThe of Appeal has had a 27% decrease in the appeals of number between 2011 and 2018” • “ Appellants have only 28 days days 28 Appellants only have from the date of conviction to appeal, sentence or unless a compelling can provide they time. more reason needing for legal will get adviceThey from their trial team, who will be reluctant their to admit failings. Court The Appeal, of haswhich become increasingly conservative, actively discourages appeals.

CORRECT MISTAKES FAILING TO FAILING IN DENIAL A JUSTICEA SYSTEM 6 CHALLENGING INJUSTICE CHALLENGING WE WORK: HOW

Our lawyers represent the victims of miscarriages of justice to the Criminal HOW WE WORK Cases Review Commission, the 02 Administrative Court and the Court of Appeal. We are supported by some of the CHALLENGING WE LITIGATE finest criminal and public law INJUSTICE in the country, largely working pro bono. 35 LEGAL SUBMISSIONS APPEAL has made a total of 35 legal submissions to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, Court of Appeal and Administrative Court.

ONCE WE ACCEPT A CASE WE: It’s like APPEAL is picking up the pieces. You look at everything 01 • Analyse the existing “ case materials and you are fair in what you do • Request and obtain access and you listen. The things that to documents and exhibits everyone missed in first place WE INVESTIGATE • Interview witnesses • Visit key locations are coming out now. We screen cases carefully for both merit • Commission new forensic APPEAL client and potential for impact. We only work testing and expert analysis on behalf of people who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer.

Since 2014: 24% All I’ve ever wanted is for someone “ APPEAL 900+ were women to give a damn enough about the has provided legal advice & assistance to applications truth to do the legwork necessary. for help from I am not a murderer and I want the prisoners received killers to be brought to justice. 60 PEOPLE 76% and assessed of were men APPEAL applicant which...

8 9 CHALLENGING INJUSTICE CHALLENGING WE WORK: HOW

APPEAL trains people to be better 03 criminal justice practitioners: WE HAVE TRAINED • We have trained 487 students and volunteers. Our university partners STUDENTS & WE include Birmingham, Cambridge, VOLUNTEERS Cardiff, City, Essex, Lancaster, 487 Nottingham, Royal Holloway, We work with prisoners, their families, campaigners, Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam LAW FIRM students, legal professionals, politicians and policy and Swansea. 130 EMPLOYEES makers to ensure that our justice system can learn • We have trained more than 130 from its mistakes. law firm employees from Dechert, , WilmerHale, Kingsley Napley, Ropes & Gray, Latham & We argue for safeguards like the Watkins, and White & Case. presumption of innocence, open and accountable justice, robust science, APPEAL HAS BEEN QUOTED effective practice, and a gender- responsive approach. OVER 80 TIMES IN 33

APPEAL acts as the secretariat for DIFFERENT NEWS OUTLETS the All-Party Parliamentary Group ...including in BBC News, The on Miscarriages of Justice. This Working at APPEAL has made Group established a Commission on Guardian, the Financial Times, the “me a better advocate, by Miscarriages of Justice to undertake an Law Gazette. We have appeared making me aware of what inquiry into the criminal justice system’s on the front page of The Times, capacity for correcting its mistakes. needs to be improved within and have been featured on BBC the criminal justice system. Panorama, talkRADIO and BBC APPEAL law student volunteer Sunday Morning Live.

10 11 OUR IMPACT: INITIATIVE JUSTICE WOMEN’S

WOMEN’S JUSTICE Case study OUR IMPACT INITIATIVE INNOCENCE INITIATIVE Case study

Case study Case study UNJUST SENTENCE HALVED FOR VULNERABLE & ABUSED MOTHER

“A” was convicted of harming her baby and was given a ten-year extended sentence because a judge had found her to be ENDING THE USE OF IMPRISONMENT dangerous. APPEAL’s investigation found “A” to be a woman in crisis, with a severe FOR COUNCIL TAX DEBT IN WALES PTSD diagnosis, who was struggling to raise two children and a new-born baby within A single mother and carer, Melanie a relationship so abusive one experienced Woolcock found herself unable to keep psychologist described it as torture. WRONGFUL RAPE CONVICTION EXPOSED DISCLOSURE FAILURES UNCOVERED IN up with her council tax bills after losing BY STREET LEVEL INVESTIGATION THE CASE OF THE FRESHWATER FIVE her job. As a result, she was given an 81- When she wrote to APPEAL she was day prison sentence. We challenged her representing herself as no Legal Aid funding “R” insisted that he was innocent of the The Freshwater Five were wrongfully imprisonment and she was released. Next was available, and was completely on her rape for which he stood convicted. As a test convicted of smuggling cocaine from a we helped bring a judicial review challenge own. We supported her to appeal against case, we deployed defence investigation container ship using a fishing boat. Their to the practice of sending people to prison her 10-year sentence. It was quashed and methodology from the US, making enquiries combined sentences totalled 104 years in for council tax debt. Judges found that the replaced with a 5-year one, in recognition on the streets and in the community. We prison. APPEAL brought the case to the system was imprisoning people unlawfully. of significant error in finding this vulnerable learned that the complainant was a vulnerable CCRC, which took four years to decline woman to be dangerous. We are using this young woman who had made multiple false to refer the case, having failed to use As a consequence, all magistrates were case victory to argue for better fact-finding allegations in the past and had told a friend its powers to obtain vital evidence we retrained on the law. But we didn’t stop before sentencing. that she had invented the whole event. had identified. there. APPEAL supported Melanie in telling her story on Good Morning Wales and BBC The case was heard by Court of Appeal after In 2018, APPEAL’s tenacious investigative Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, reaching more being referred by the CCRC. “R’s” conviction work finally uncovered evidence that than 4 million listeners. As a result of for rape was quashed. He was subsequently shows that the container ship did not APPEAL’s campaign, Wales announced compensated by the state at the highest level cross tracks with the fishing boat. This that it will no longer imprison people The appeal process is hard as it is, let available. This case became the model for our fresh evidence could have been used for owing council tax. “alone for women who have endured casework going forward. to argue their innocence at trial but suffering. It is much harder if you have was hidden from the defence. suffered any abuse because abuse is not easy to speak out about, let alone then being asked to prove it. ‘A’, APPEAL client Wrongful conviction wrecks lives. I’ve had to go through 4+ “years of talking down the phone to my kids and my wife as she went through chemotherapy and then died of cancer, without me there helping and providing as a husband and father should. The sheer doggedness shown by my legal team at APPEAL is why our case got back to the Court of Appeal for a hearing and we finally get our chance to show we didn’t do it.

APPEAL client, who attended his wife’s funeral in handcuffs 12 13 OUR IMPACT: BOUND BY INJUSTICE OUR IMPACT BOUND BY INJUSTICE

“We have a voice, OPEN JUSTICE we have actions, we have drive and determination. INITIATIVE Now, I actually feel that I VICTORY IN JUDICIAL REVIEW OF am ready. POST-CONVICTION DISCLOSURE FAILURE Sister of an APPEAL client ‘J’ was sentenced to life imprisonment for a My trial felt like a slow-motion car “crash - I just couldn’t think of any vicious attack, despite a complete absence CLIENT & COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT of any forensic evidence implicating him in way to stop it. With the evidence We place the priorities expressed by the we represent. Their loved ones – the . His conviction was secured on the gathered by APPEAL, I hope that people we represent at the centre of our partners, children, parents, siblings, basis of dubious eyewitness testimony alone. practice and deliver holistic client care. friends– suffer the injustice alongside We submitted a post-conviction disclosure the Court of Appeal will finally In the last five years we have stood in at them. We host retreats for the family request to the investigating police force and, clear my name after spending more deathbeds and funerals in place of prisoners members of our clients and we have after taking the force to court to get access to than 16 years in prison for a crime not permitted to attend. We have deterred witnessed the emotional and practical the evidence, we are proceeding with forensic I did not commit. debt collectors, fought for family visits, support members are providing to testing that could lead to his exoneration. pursued property lost between prisons, each other. We are also seeing them APPEAL Client demanded medical treatment, and taken emerge as for real changes prisoner phone calls morning, noon and to our broken criminal justice system, night. But wrongful convictions and unfair speaking out in the media and at events DEMANDING SYSTEM TRANSPARENCY sentences aren’t just served by the prisoners with wider audiences. Using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), we exposed damning comments by police, prosecutors and judges about widespread failures to disclose evidence to defendants, AMPLIFYING VOICES OF MISCARRIAGE a story which was then reported on the front page of The Times. OF JUSTICE VICTIMS

Our crowdfunded 'SHOW US THE EVIDENCE' Surviving Injustice is a podcast series campaign calls on Parliamentarians to pass from APPEAL, telling the stories of new laws on access to evidence to correct people impacted by miscarriages of the current imbalance in the system. justice at first hand. Season One told Cookie’s story and follows the events that led to this woman’s 14-year wrongful imprisonment for the murder of her baby on the basis of highly dubious expert testimony. The podcast has been listened to more than 2,300 times in over 30 countries. It has led to renewed interest in the stories of the “unexonerated” – those who maintain their innocence but have to serve their THE PODCAST HAS BEEN sentences in full because the system LISTENED TO MORE THAN 2,300 denies them the opportunity to prove TIMES IN OVER 30 COUNTRIES. it in court.

14 15 WHAT A FAIRER SYSTEM NEXT?: OUR VISION FOR JUSTICE WHAT WE NEED TO CHANGE IT WHAT NEXT? Legal Aid is so restricted that it is not possible to do the work needed to challenge miscarriages of justice on a publicly-funded basis. Therefore we seek private grants and donations to support our work.

Over the last five years we have been supported by a small but committed group OUR VISION FOR A FAIRER who have understood the devastating consequences of miscarriages of justice and the severity of the crisis in our criminal justice system. However, because criminal defence work until now has been the province of for-profit law firms, our charity JUSTICE SYSTEM model is new to many funders.

Any donation to APPEAL, whether a restricted grant, core funding, monthly giving, a legacy or a one-off individual donation, brings the people we represent one step closer to justice – and ensures that APPEAL will still be providing the evidence for WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE the need for reform in years to come. The criminal appeals system needs to be INCOME EXPENDITURE changed. Over the next five years we will be engaging in impact investigation, litigation and campaigning directed at achieving the following changes in policy and law:

ACCOUNTABILITY RECOGNITION OF VULNERABILITY & TRANSPARENCY & DIFFERENCE

We will push for reforms that recognise Item £ 1 More Legal Aid funding available Source £ for defence investigation for both the disproportionate impact of our Casework 172,978 trials and appeals current criminal laws on vulnerable Individual Donations 67,903 people, and advocate for the distinct Communications, Grants 212,275 campaigning 13,044 2 Full access to police files for needs of women in prison. This and education the defence includes: Gift Aid 10,525 Bound by Injustice Media Consultancy 3,000 13,026 3 Decisions about disclosure to be Family Support 1 Abolishing the use of prison for debt Legal Aid 12,775 made by an independent agency General Operations 26,698 rather than police and prosecutors 2 Reducing the use of short sentences Total 306,478 for non-violent , particularly Total 225,746 4 A complete transcript of trials for women to be provided for appeals at no OUR TIME cost when the prisoner cannot 3 Recognising of the impact of poor *Support costs, management and governance afford them mental health and experiences of domestic abuse in sentencing women to custody 57% 5 Accountability for poor defence Casework representation at trial to be available on appeal 13% Operations

6% Fundraising

24% Campaigning and Policy Reform

16 *Figures are from 2018/2019 17 IMPACT REPORT: THANK YOU THANK YOU : Brick Court, Carmelite, Doughty Street, 23 Essex Street, Garden Court, Garden Court North, Gough Square, Our work is only possible due to the faith Lamb Building, Matrix, Nexus, Pump Court, One Pump and generosity of the people and organisations Court, and that donate money, time, expertise, goods and services to APPEAL. PRO BONO LAW FIRMS: Dechert, Linklaters, Kingsley Napley, Latham & Watkins, FUNDERS: Ropes & Gray, Sidley Austin, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, White & Case and WilmerHale. AB Charitable Trust Leathersellers Company Access to Justice Foundation Charitable Foundation Allen Lane Foundation Legal Education Foundation Allen and Overy Foundation Meadowbrook Trust EXPERTISE & TRAINING: Clothworkers Foundation Network for Social Change Compliance Office, BondSolon, Insight Investigations, Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Porticus Wallbrook, Bell Yard PR, UCL Centre for the Forensic Trust Rainmaker Sciences, Sound Delivery, Lost Boys Detective Agency, Evan Cornish Foundation Roddick Foundation Université de Lausanne: École des sciences criminelles Garden Court Special Fund Scurrah Wainwright Charity and private experts in forensic and other sciences. Highway One Trust Shackleton Foundation Humanade The Funding Network Our thanks to Lydia Fisher and Kirstin Smith, who designed J Paul Getty Jr Charitable Unltd* this report. Our thanks also to Tim Kay and Lucy Bellamy Trust WilmerHale who also supported the report’s design. Lankelly Chase Foundation Woodford Family Charitable Laura Kinsella Foundation Trust

UNIVERSITY PARTNERS: APPEAL is governed by a Board of Trustees, all of whom are practicing barristers or Birkbeck, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, City, Essex, solicitors, who oversee our finances and set strategic goals for the organisation. We also receive guidance from members of a broad-ranging Advisory Group of legal professionals, Lancaster, Manchester, Nottingham, Royal Holloway, academics, experts, campaigners, former prisoners and other criminal justice stakeholders.

Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam, and Swansea Universities. www.appeal.org.uk

18 19 THE GREEN HOUSE, 244-254 CAMBRIDGE HEATH RD E2 9DA | [email protected] OFFICE: 0203 559 6374 | WWW.APPEAL.ORG.UK

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