UK Law Articles
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The Times
April 9 1997
Agency is swamped by cases of wrongful conviction
BY RICHARD FORD
HOME CORRESPONDENT
THE huge number of alleged miscarriages of justice threatens to overwhelm the new organisation set up to deal with claims of wrongful conviction, its chairman said yesterday.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission estimates that it will examine 1,500 cases a year and will receive six cases a day to study. A report published yesterday said the "initial wave of cases threatens to submerge" the commission.
The report also discloses that implementing computer systems would be delayed for a "few months" and that case workers would not be in operation until June or July.
Sir Frederick Crawford, chairman of the commission, said: "We are expecting an avalanche of cases as we move into the next few months."
The commission is expected to have to deal with up to three million pages of material annually. Sir Frederick admitted: "We don't know if we can cope. No one does."
Sir Frederick brushed aside suggestions of any conflict of interest through his membership of the Freemasons. "If I was involved in any dealing with which there was a conflict of interest, I would withdraw," he said.
Sir Frederick said he did not know if the file on James Hanratty, hanged for the A6 murder in 1962, had arrived at the commission. "I haven't seen the files on Hanratty and I don't even know if they have arrived yet. When they come it will be a very extensive investigation."
Funded by an annual £3.5 million grant from Parliament,the organisation has a staff of 40 and is still recruiting.
Cases dealt with by the Commission will fall into three broad categories: old cases, such as Hanratty; those arising before the introduction of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, which rest on issues such as confession evidence and investigation procedure and those arising after the Act, which rest on issues such as evidence disclosure.
