You Call This Justice?

In this bonus episode, I talk to Dr Sandra Lean who is an author (No Smoke, the Shocking Truth about British Justice" and "Innocents Betrayed")and researcher who works tirelessly to help people who have been wrongly convicted. We talk about how and why she became involved in miscarriage of justice work; the controversial case of Luke Mitchell who was 14 years old when his girlfriend was murdered and he was later convicted of her murder; and other important issues regarding our legal systems.

On Valentines Day 1988, Lynette White was brutally murdered in Cardiff. The police made a public appeal on crime watch and said that they were looking for a white male who was seen by a witness near the scene of the crime with an injured hand/blood on him. However, in November 1988 they charged five innocent black and mixed race men with the murder including, John Actie despite there being no forensic evidence to link any of them to the offence and the blood of an unidentified person being found at the scene. Although John was acquitted at the trial which took place two years after he was charged, many of the police told the community including Lynette’s family that he had got away with the crime.  The perception of “there is no smoke without fire” continued to haunt John until the eventual killer, who was a white male, was identified in January 2002. What happened was horrific and the level of police corruption regarding the investigation shocked the criminal justice system to its core.

The impact of being wrongly accused of committing any criminal offence can be life changing. Adrian Stone was 21 years old when he was charged and remanded with others in relation to a number of offences. The trial became known as the Cardiff Explosives Conspiracy Trial. In this episode, Adrian shares his story regarding what happened including; being interrogated by police forces from different parts of the Wales & England and MI5, being remanded for two years pending his trial and having to fight to clear his name after he believes evidence was planted at his home address. In summing up the Judge said; “the central decision you have to make is as to honesty of witnesses. The main contest is between the police and the defendants.” This is a shocking story that shows the lengths some people will go to, to try to destroy an innocent man’s life.

The Cardiff University Innocence Project was founded in 2006. Over 90 Cardiff University students and other professionals try to help wrongly convicted people overturn their convictions. It is the only university innocence project in the country to have successfully helped someone overturn their conviction; Dwaine George - whereby the students, staff and experts worked for over nine years to help overturn his wrongful conviction for murder; and Gareth Jones - after a six year investigation his conviction for a serious sexual offence was overturned. In this episode, the project leaders Dr Dennis Eady and Dr Holly Greenwood talk about the work that the project does, the success stories, how to manage the students expectations and the hurdles they face in helping a victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Since Mike was released he has become an award winning author and he campaigns for the wrongly convicted people he left behind. In this episode we talk about the work he has done including; helping people in police interviews as an appropriate adult and helping people in the family court as a Mackenzie friend. We also talk about the death penalty because if the death penalty had still been in place Mike and others including his co-accused, the Guildford Four, Birmingham Six, Barry George and many, many others would have been hanged. Like the last man to executed in Cardiff, Mahmood Mattan who was later proved to be innocent. His gravestone reads; 'killed by injustice.' In this episode, Mike and I have an open and frank discussion about some difficult issues regarding our criminal justice system.