The Law Commission has laid out reforms for criminal appeals weeks after Helen Pitcher, chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), claimed to be a ‘scapegoat’ when she resigned.
The CCRC, which decides which case can go to the Court of Appeal (criminal), has been under fire for the part it played in Andrew Malkinson’s case.
Malkinson was wrongly convicted in 2003 and imprisoned for 17 years, but a review recently stated he could have been exonerated almost a decade earlier.
In her resignation letter, as seen by City AM in January, Pitcher said: “A head had to roll, and I was chosen for that role” over the failures in Malkinson’s case.
This came as research by The Independent, published last November, revealed the backlog of people waiting to know whether they will be allowed to appeal alleged miscarriages of justice had soared.
The government asked the Law Commission in July 2022 to review the law relating to appeals in criminal cases; today, it laid out its proposals.
In a press statement, Commissioner for Criminal Law Professor Penney Lewis explained: “We received persuasive evidence that the ‘real possibility’ test used by the CCRC may lead the CCRC to focus its investigations too narrowly and so neglect lines of inquiry that might exonerate a person.”
The Commission laid out several reforms, including enabling more appeals to be considered by the Supreme Court by removing the requirement for the Court of Appeal to certify an appeal.
Another move is to make the CCRC subject to an independent inspectorate while also giving courts and the CCRC “greater powers” to investigate claims that a conviction is unsafe due to juror misconduct.
Lewis stated that the “Post Office scandal has demonstrated [that] anyone can be a victim of a miscarriage of justice.”
“Our proposals seek to ensure that those who are wrongly convicted can effectively challenge their convictions,” she added.
The Law Commission has opened the consultation stage as it seeks views from the public, which ends on 30 May. “We will analyse responses, with a view to publishing a final report with recommendations in 2026.”