Misjustice: How British Law is Failing Women

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In the last ten years (as at 2023), nearly 900 New Zealanders have had their convictions overturned. The following cases are the only ones where the Government has paid compensation for a wrongful conviction, [101] except for Peter Ellis who died before the Supreme Court in New Zealand overturned his convictions. Joyce was one of three people condemned to death for the murder of a local family in Ireland, which was part of the United Kingdom at the time. Joyce spoke no English, his lawyer spoke no Irish, perjured witnesses were bribed, evidence withheld, and most scholars have regarded the verdict as a miscarriage of justice. In 2018 the President of Ireland issued a pardon and said "Maolra Seoighe was wrongly convicted of murder and was hanged for a crime that he did not commit." [77]

Despite many individuals needing access to lawyers, the cost of a lawyer can often be financially burdensome – and this is where legal aid is often needed. Unfortunately, access to justice has been hit hard by legal aid budget cuts, which has led to the overall budget falling by approximately 40% over the last decade. Horst Arnold was a sports and biology teacher at the August Zinn comprehensive school in Reichelsheim. He was accused by a female colleague, Heidi K., of having raped her, and based on her testimony he was sentenced to five years of prison. Only after he was freed, an equal opportunity commissioner (who, at first, supported Heidi K. before and during the trial) noticed several contradictions in her stories. In prison, Arnold continued to deny the crime and refused therapy sessions, which was why he was denied early leave on parole. In the retrial, Arnold was exonerated, and in 2013, Heidi K. was sentenced to five years and six months. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) brought significant budget cuts and partially or wholly removed entire areas of civil law from the scope of legal aid – including most benefits, debt, housing, employment and immigration advice, as well as family law that doesn’t involve domestic violence. I think, too, about reading and watching the coverage not so long ago about the great athlete Oscar Pistorius, who shot his girlfriend in a fit of rage, or the footballer Ched Evans, who was acquitted on a retrial of rape, having been given the heads-up by a friend that there was a young woman available for sex who just happened to be very drunk, or the politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who walked away from a sexual assault allegation on an immigrant hotel worker claiming it was consensual, only to be later exposed as a man with an unquenchable appetite for aggressive sex with strangers. All these men were able to rally huge public support. I think of John Warboys, the taxi driver who was responsible for the assault of legions of women but was considered suitable for release by the Parole Board after nine years. Then there is Donald Trump, who boasted on tape that he liked to ‘grab women by the pussy’ and admitted he could do so without any consequences because of his power and fame; who also said that he thought women who had abortions deserved ‘some form of punishment’. He then went on to become president of the United States, supported by swathes of men but also a large number of women who think he speaks for them. I read and watch female journalists, paid assassins, turn on women who speak out about the ways in which lecherous men grope them, or I hear senior women at the Bar say that young women who complain of roaming hands should not consider a career in law if they cannot deal with it, and then I wonder how long it will take before there is equality. For millennia women have been made to feel shame. They have been told that what happens to them is their fault and it is they who are blamed for their failures, their shortcomings, their conduct. That is the power of patriarchy. Male dominance is maintained by this stuff. Women are made to feel soiled. They absorb feelings of guilt. The voice in their heads is mouthing cultural norms created by men and sold to women. ‘It must have been something about me that made him do that to me.’

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Ben Blanchard & Robert Birsel (February 8, 2015). "China court gives out new death penalty after wrongful execution". Reuters . Retrieved February 8, 2015. This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources. Argentina [ edit ] Date of crime After returning to the U.S., St. Martin's Press published Volz's memoir, Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua. [111] [112]

Israel's top court acquits man of murder after he serves 12 years in prison". Haaretz . Retrieved November 11, 2018. Conviction quashed after an unknown person's DNA was found on the woman's clothes. Nealon was denied compensation. Toronto Police Service (October 15, 2020). "Statement by Chief of Police Jim Ramer regarding the 1984 Homicide of Christine Jessop". Toronto Police: News Releases (Press release). #48291. Archived from the original on October 23, 2020 . Retrieved February 27, 2022.

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But women don’t have confidence in the justice system. And going by the litany of horrors that Kennedy details in this relentless, often disturbing book, no wonder. In 2005, thirteen people were finally proven innocent of child molestation after having served four years in prison. A fourteenth died in prison. Only four people were proven guilty. This infamous case, which deeply shook public opinion, is known as the Affaire d'Outreau, the Outreau case, from the name of the city where the victims lived. Steven Truscott's wrongful conviction of murder in the death of Lynne Harper stood for 48 years before finally being overturned on August 28, 2007. The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were wrongly convicted in 1974 and 1976, respectively, of planting bombs in various pubs in Guildford and Woolwich. Their convictions were quashed in 1989 and 1991. On February 9, 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a public apology to the Maguire Seven and the Guildford Four for the "miscarriages of justice they had suffered". In 2000, Arnoldo Lazorovsky was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor while working as a janitor at the Kfar Saba Country Club between 1991 and 1994, and was sentenced to six years in prison, after being accused by a young man several years after the alleged crimes occurred. Soon afterward, Gregory Schneider, who had worked at the same country club, was convicted of similar crimes after being accused by the same person, but the conviction was overturned upon appeal. As a result, Lazorovsky requested and was granted a retrial, but was convicted again, after which he appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court, which overturned the conviction. [78]