Miscarriages of Justice

The Scottish Universities Insight Institute provided funding for a 6 month programme to address the legal and socio-economic mechanisms currently in place to identify miscarriages of justice in Scotland and the opportunities afforded to prisoners who are claiming innocence while in prison and following their release.  It also focused on the education and training of practising lawyers as well as law students concerning miscarriages of justice.

The programme ran from August 2009 to March 2010 and included participants from different sectors: academics, policy makers, lawyers, members of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, the Parole Board and the Howard League for Penal Reform in Scotland.  Discussions and workshops integrated multiple disciplines including law, forensic science, sociology, psychology and criminology.

Details of each part of the programme are available on the Scottish Universities Insight Institute’s webpage for this programme.

Forensic Evidence and Criminal Justice students at GCU have been assisting with an annotated bibliography of ‘Innocence’ literature relating to their studies of miscarriages of justice.  Students undertaking ‘Innocence Projects’ at other universities have also contributed to this work.

Bromby, M. (2008) Scotland’s First Innocence Project, SCOLAG Legal Journal, December, p. 297http://ssrn.com/abstract=1561512

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