Wrongful Conviction Review
Definition
A post-conviction process in which a court, review commission, or independent body re-examines the evidence supporting a conviction. In England and Wales this is conducted by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC); analogous bodies exist in Canada, New Zealand, and some US states.
- Process type
- Post-conviction re-examination
- England and Wales body
- Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC)
- Similar bodies
- Canada, New Zealand, some US states
Common questions
What can trigger a wrongful conviction review body like the CCRC to take up a case?+
A convicted person, their representative, or sometimes the body itself can refer a case, typically after new evidence emerges, such as fresh forensic testing, a change in scientific understanding, or evidence of flawed original testimony.
What can a body like the CCRC actually do once it reviews a case?+
It can refer the case back to an appeal court if it finds a real possibility the conviction would not be upheld, but it does not itself overturn convictions, leaving the final decision to the court.
Related terms
- Contextual Bias
- The influence of case-relevant background information (suspect financial difficulties, police intelligence) on the direction of an examiner's technical analysis. Demonstrated experimentally for...
- Duty of Impartiality
- The obligation that an expert witness owes to the court rather than to the party that retained them. Codified in England and...
- Fabrication of Evidence
- The deliberate creation of false scientific results or the falsification of existing results for use in legal proceedings. It is the most...
- Sequential Unmasking
- An information-sequencing protocol in which the examiner receives the questioned material first, completes and documents the analysis before receiving the known standards,...
- Witness Immunity
- A common-law protection that historically shielded expert witnesses from civil liability for statements made in judicial proceedings. In England and Wales it...