#PayUp4TimeSpent
At a further event at the House of Commons this week, our client, Sam Hallam, alongside our recently appointed trustee, Patrick Maguire joined our colleague, respected human rights lawyer Matt Foot, who is Co-director of London-based innocence project APPEAL.
Alongside victims of the Horizon scandal, they launched their campaign #PayUp4TimeSpent.
The campaign seeks to raise awareness and affect real change to the overly restrictive laws in England and Wales around compensation as a result of a miscarriage of justice.
In Scotland, as in England and Wales, marginally less restrictive tests for compensation leave exoneration at appeal alone insufficient to merit recognition as a victim of miscarriage of justice. Which, logically, makes no sense at all. Because, as a matter of law, the Appeal Court in Scotland can only quash a conviction where it is satisfied that the conviction founds on a miscarriage of justice.
Matt has asked that we share the following:
Most people think that when a person has gone to prison when they shouldn’t have, that they will receive compensation when their conviction is finally overturned.
However a most brutal law introduced in 2014 has meant the vast majority don’t get a penny.
It is no longer enough for the wrongfully convicted person to have proved that they are not guilty. To receive compensation, they must show that the new or newly discovered fact that led to the conviction being quashed shows “beyond reasonable doubt” that the person did not commit the offence (Criminal Justice Act 2014 Section 133 (1ZA)).
This essentially means they must prove their innocence – therefore reversing the age old principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. From 2016 to 2024, of the 591 applications for compensation by miscarriage of justice victims, only 39 were granted – less than 7%.
Innocent people who have spent many years in prison have been left destitute. That’s exactly what happened to Sam Hallam, who is supported by APPEAL. Despite his conviction being overturned in 2012, Sam has been denied any form of compensation.
APPEAL is calling for this abhorrent rule to be scrapped #PayUp4TimeSpent – join the campaign here
For further information of how victims of victims of miscarriages of justice are being continually let down. See APPEAL’s website HERE.
