Guilty until proven innocent?

In brief

• The effects on the claimant in R (Hallam).
• The role of the Human Rights Act in miscarriages of justice.

R (Hallam) v Secretary of State for Justice [2019] UKSC 2, [2020] AC 279: the appellant was suspected, charged, prosecuted, tried, convicted and imprisoned. He had pleaded not guilty. He submitted his case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), who referred the case to the Court of Appeal, who subsequently allowed the appeal. The conviction was unsafe. He was acquitted. He was released from prison after 17 (sic) years. He was not retried. The police did not say that they were not looking for anybody else. He applied for compensation. He was refused. The impact upon the claimant was horrific: irretrievable loss of 17 years of life, loss of reputation, loss of job, loss of marriage, loss of home.

Compensation for Miscarriages of Justice, Criminal Justice Act 1988 as amended:

S 133(1) ‘…when a person has been convicted