ScoLAG journal article

My review of the project appeared in the Scottish Legal Action Group (ScoLAG) journal this month.

256 Years is Too Long!

According to ScottishLegal news, a murder case from 1752 will not be reviewed.

SCCRC yesterday confirmed that it had dismissed an attempt to examine the Appin murder of 1752, which is said to have inspired the story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped.

The commission said it had two statutory tests it used before accepting cases for review and that the Appin case failed on the second test – it would not be in the interests of justice having regard to a number of factors, including the time lapse of 256 years.

The 18th century trial saw the Jacobite James Stewart hanged for the murder of Government agent Colin Campbell. Eleven out of the 15 jurors were Campbell and Hanoverian, and the most senior of the judges was the Duke of Argyll, chief of Clan Campbell.
Further action may be considered by the applicant - either an application for a judicial review or an appeal to the Justice Secretary.

Tomorrow's launch

My presentation for tomorrow will look at the Scottish statistics for criminal appeals, which were published recently on 28 October 08 by the Scottish Government.
In total, there were only 76 successful appeals against conviction, out of 2,254 appeals lodged in 2007/08. The total number of convictions is yet to be published, but in 2006/07 there were 138,800 criminal convictions in Scotland.
I'm interested in the grounds of appeal and types of evidence led in the 76 successful cases, and also for the 339 dismissed appeals - what we won't know is why 1,376 cases were abondoned.
The Innocence Project in New York has statistics for the most common factors leading to miscarriages of justice,, which unsurprisingly suggests that eyewitnesses are common causes.

Publicity

The University Press Office put out a release yesterday, and there's already some interest generated at:
The Firm - Birmingham Six veteran launches Innocence project in Glasgow
SCCJR - Launch Event for Scotland's First Innocence Project
The Journal Online - University to launch "Innocence" project
US Innocence Project - http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/1683.php

INUK Training

This weekend , I attending the annual training for INUK held at Cardiff University along with my three designated case managers for the GCU Innocence Project.
Friday's session was extremely valuable - an insight into the experiences and views of Gerry Conlon (Guilford Four), Paul Blackburn (wrongfully convicted of murder) and Michael O'Brien (Cardiff newsagent Three). The remainder of the weekend was also well spent looking at the CCRC process (albeit all English law) and how to manage student projects.
The use of CaseMap seems to be a good way to document work that is done by a student group - especially when some students may graduate and a mechanism to 'hand over' is required, but I'll comment on that when we get started with it!

Welcome!

This is the first blog post of the GCU Innocence Project - an extra-curricular (and voluntary) student group who will be looking at claims of wrongful convictions in Scotland. This is the first Scottish project and runs in association with INUK - the Innocence Network UK.
As the project director, I will be reporting here on news and developments arising from case work, and also commenting on the wider field of miscarriages of justice in Scotland and the UK.

INUK membership

Glasgow Caledonian University is now a member of the Innocence Network UK (INUK) association of Innocence Projects, and will be the first Scottish project to join!
This blog will give updates to the project and also report on any issues in Scotland that may be of interest.
Our homepage details more about the project, or you can contact me (Michael Bromby) for any further information.