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Innocence is not enough

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08 May 2008 / Michael Zander KC
Issue: 7320 / Categories: Features , Public , Procedure & practice , Human rights
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Innocent projects can serve a useful purpose, says Professor Michael Zander

I was slow on the uptake. The Innocence Network UK (INUK) was established in 2004. It took four years before I took any notice.

I knew about such projects in the US where DNA had repeatedly shown people on Death Row to be innocent. But we don't have the death penalty. Moreover, we don't do innocence. A verdict of not guilty is not a declaration of innocence. It only shows that the case was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt. For a conviction to be quashed on appeal the court has to be satisfied that the verdict is unsafe not that the appellant is innocent. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) was working reasonably well, referring cases back to the Court of Appeal when new evidence indicated a serious possibility that the conviction might be overturned. In view of all this, what need for an innocence project?

Last month I attended INUK's spring meeting which ended with the formal

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