Andy Slaughter Calls for Reform of Miscarriages of Justice Compensation at Pitzhanger Manor Exhibition

Image: Andy Slaughter MP visits exhibition of victims of miscarriages of justice Pitzhanger Manor © Lucinda MacPherson

Lucinda MacPherson interviewed the MP for Hammersmith and Chiswick and Chair of the Justice Select Committee

Guest blog by Lucinda MacPherson

Andy Slaughter MP, Chair of the Justice Select Committee, visited Pitzhanger Manor on Friday, 6 June to see the “J’Accuse…!” exhibition—an exploration of miscarriages of justice inspired by Emile Zola’s famed defence of Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

Reflecting on the current state of the justice system, Slaughter said it was a massive organisation of great complexity and he thought it was, in general, a wonderful system. He praised the solicitors, barristers, judges, probation service and police for working very hard.

But he also voiced concerns over court backlogs, overcrowded prisons, and the underfunding of crucial institutions like the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which the select committee he chairs has recently scrutinised and found wanting.

“It’s not working very well at the moment because we have huge backlogs in the court. We have prisons that are overflowing. These are a combination of cutbacks and not properly funding and resourcing the system. So it becomes unworkable,” Slaughter said.

He pointed out how delays discourage victims from seeking justice and leave defendants in legal limbo for years. “People are waiting a long time to get justice. That means victims don’t want to go to court anymore. Defendants might be on remand years. It doesn’t take much for a justice system that is working well to start working badly.”

READ ALSO: Stars lit up Pitzhanger Manor for Nicole Farhi’s J’Accuse…! launch

Reforming the Criminal Cases Review Commission

The CCRC, which reviews possible wrongful convictions, has been criticised for failing in its duty, a notable case being that of Andy Malkinson, a sculpture of whom is in the exhibition at Pitzhanger. Malkinson remained in prison for over 17 years for a serious crime he did not commit.

Slaughter explained the difficulty courts have in overturning jury decisions, saying, “The court of appeal has always been reluctant to overturn, particularly jury trials. If a competent judge with a jury—which is the system we use quite rightly in common law jurisdictions—has found somebody guilty, it is unlikely that the Court of Appeal will interfere.”

However landmark cases back in the 1970s forced reforms. “It took cases like the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four to make people actually act, to say we have to have a check on the way the system is working.”

Image:  Andy Slaughter with Nicole Farhi’s sculpture of Timothy Evans and Andrew Malkinson on his right © Lucinda MacPherson

Slaughter’s Justice Select Committee has reviewed why the CCRC has struggled in recent years. “When the CCRC was set up, it had some highly driven competent people. But for a variety of reasons, the role of the commissioner has been weakened; the organisation works remotely now—they’re not all working together and sharing ideas. Serious doubts about the senior management—the chair had to be removed earlier this year.”

New Leadership and Legislative Change

Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood has appointed Dame Vera Baird DBE KC as interim Chair of the CCRC, which she starts this Monday, 9 June, a move that Slaughter welcomed. “She’s a former Solicitor General, former senior criminal lawyer, former Victims’ Commissioner. I was thinking they’re going to find it really difficult to find someone to do the job of chair here, because they’ve got to have a lot of authority and gravitas, and they’ve got to be very driven. But they’ve also got to do the detail. And Vera is someone who can do those things.”

Slaughter noted that Baird’s role is “not just to run the organisation, but to make proposals for the future running of it”, describing it as a “root and branch review” (a call to action by Andrew Malkinson) of the CCRC’s failures and future.

Image: © Lucinda MacPherson

Compensation for Miscarriages of Justice

Slaughter also criticised the current legal framework for compensating those wrongfully convicted.

“That was the law change under the previous government, which I hope this government is going to reverse, which basically said: If you are found to have been falsely imprisoned or falsely convicted, you will only get compensation if you prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you are innocent. It’s unprecedented. It can only have been done to save money.”

He argued that such a burden unfairly casts doubt on the innocence of exonerees. “I think it actually casts aspersions on the innocence of people as well.”

A Call to Action

Slaughter recognised that the system must be rebuilt to prevent further failures. “There are different issues, a lot of them are organisational and to do with personnel. Have you got the right commissioners in the right numbers, doing the right job? Have you got the right caseworkers, and are they working in the right way?”

Despite the challenges, he remains hopeful that the CCRC can be restored to its original purpose. “It did work for 10 or 20 years when it was set up, so we can learn the lessons of what’s gone wrong over that time.”

With Baird leading reforms and growing political pressure to change miscarriage-of-justice compensation laws, Slaughter’s visit to J’Accuse…! was at a critical moment in Britain’s fight for fairness in its justice system.

J’Accuse…! at Pitzhanger Manor closes on June 15.

For more information, visit pitzhanger.org.uk