AC3.2 - Draw conclusions from information
Conclusions:
- Just verdicts
- Miscarriages
- Safe verdict
- Just sentencing
Just Verdict
- One that is deserved, lawful and proper
- It is one that does justice to the facts of the case, finding the guilty, guilty, and the
innocent not guilty
- The criminal justice system doesn’t always produce just verdicts
Case Example - Billy Dunlop
- Billy Dunlop was jailed in 2006 for killing Julie Hogg - the first person to be retried for
murder after a change in the "double jeopardy" law.
- Dunlop, 55, murdered Ms Hogg in 1989
- He had been tried twice for her murder in 1991 but each time a jury failed to reach a
verdict and he was formally acquitted under the convention that the prosecution does
not ask for a third trial.
- He later admitted the killing but as he could not be tried for murder again he could
only be prosecuted for perjury
- In 2005, the Double Jeopardy rule was overturned
Case Example - Gary Dobson and David Norris (The MacPherson Report)
- Found that the police are institutionally racist
- It took a public inquiry in order to achieve a just verdict
- Police arrest brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, David Norris, Gary Dobson and Luke
Knight, and search their homes. Neil Acourt and Luke Knight are identified by
Duwayne Brooks at ID parades as part of the gang responsible and the pair are
charged with murder. They deny the charges.
- The CPS drops the prosecution as it says the ID evidence from Duwayne Brooks is
unreliable.
- Dobson and Norris are both found guilty of murder at the end of a six-week trial into
the death of Stephen Lawrence.
- During the trial, the court hears that microscopic evidence found on clothing
belonging to the accused links them to the murder.
- The jury takes two-and-a-half days to reach its decision. Both men receive life
sentences; Dobson is jailed for a minimum of 15 years and two months, Norris for 14
years and three months.
, Case Example - Russel Bishop
- Bishop killed two girls in his local area
- He was acquitted the first time due to a lack of evidence
- Attempted to kill a second girl in which he was caught
- He was then retried for the original two murders, in which he was found guilty of
- This shows a just verdict was eventually reached
Miscarriages
Miscarriages of justice generally occur where there are either problems with the evidence or
problems with the trial process. If this is the case the defendant may appeal against the
‘guilty’ verdict.
Case Example - Birmingham Six
- 21st November 1974 - 2 Birmingham pubs were bombed, and it was suspected the
IRA were responsible for the loss of 21 lives.
- Six Irish Catholic men who lived in the area were arrested
- Four out of six signed a confession as they were being deprived of food and sleep
- 12th May 1975 - all six were charged with murder anf conspiracy to cause explosions
- They were convicted largely based on the evidence of Home Office forensic scientist
Frank Skuse, who told the trial that the men had handled nitroglycerine.
- In 1985, a television programme revealed that the solvent Skuse had used in the test
for nitroglycerine, 1 percent caustic soda, would also have produced a positive result
if the men had handled nitrocellulose (this would suggest they were not guilty)
- In September 1990 a Home Office review concluded that there was no forensic
evidence against the six.
Jury Trials
In the history of juries, verdicts have been ‘unjust’.
Case Example - OJ Simpson
- He was arrested for the stabbing and subsequent murder of Nicole Brown Simpson
and Ronald Goldman outside Nicole’s Brentwood townhouse on June 12 1994
- He insisted he was innocent from the very beginning
- His defence lawyer Johnnie Cochran alluded to institutional racism within the police
which may have led to Simpson being arrested, which the jury had the power to
redress.
- The jury took less than four hours to reach a unanimous decision of not guilty
Case Example - Rosie James and Rachel Wenham
Conclusions:
- Just verdicts
- Miscarriages
- Safe verdict
- Just sentencing
Just Verdict
- One that is deserved, lawful and proper
- It is one that does justice to the facts of the case, finding the guilty, guilty, and the
innocent not guilty
- The criminal justice system doesn’t always produce just verdicts
Case Example - Billy Dunlop
- Billy Dunlop was jailed in 2006 for killing Julie Hogg - the first person to be retried for
murder after a change in the "double jeopardy" law.
- Dunlop, 55, murdered Ms Hogg in 1989
- He had been tried twice for her murder in 1991 but each time a jury failed to reach a
verdict and he was formally acquitted under the convention that the prosecution does
not ask for a third trial.
- He later admitted the killing but as he could not be tried for murder again he could
only be prosecuted for perjury
- In 2005, the Double Jeopardy rule was overturned
Case Example - Gary Dobson and David Norris (The MacPherson Report)
- Found that the police are institutionally racist
- It took a public inquiry in order to achieve a just verdict
- Police arrest brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, David Norris, Gary Dobson and Luke
Knight, and search their homes. Neil Acourt and Luke Knight are identified by
Duwayne Brooks at ID parades as part of the gang responsible and the pair are
charged with murder. They deny the charges.
- The CPS drops the prosecution as it says the ID evidence from Duwayne Brooks is
unreliable.
- Dobson and Norris are both found guilty of murder at the end of a six-week trial into
the death of Stephen Lawrence.
- During the trial, the court hears that microscopic evidence found on clothing
belonging to the accused links them to the murder.
- The jury takes two-and-a-half days to reach its decision. Both men receive life
sentences; Dobson is jailed for a minimum of 15 years and two months, Norris for 14
years and three months.
, Case Example - Russel Bishop
- Bishop killed two girls in his local area
- He was acquitted the first time due to a lack of evidence
- Attempted to kill a second girl in which he was caught
- He was then retried for the original two murders, in which he was found guilty of
- This shows a just verdict was eventually reached
Miscarriages
Miscarriages of justice generally occur where there are either problems with the evidence or
problems with the trial process. If this is the case the defendant may appeal against the
‘guilty’ verdict.
Case Example - Birmingham Six
- 21st November 1974 - 2 Birmingham pubs were bombed, and it was suspected the
IRA were responsible for the loss of 21 lives.
- Six Irish Catholic men who lived in the area were arrested
- Four out of six signed a confession as they were being deprived of food and sleep
- 12th May 1975 - all six were charged with murder anf conspiracy to cause explosions
- They were convicted largely based on the evidence of Home Office forensic scientist
Frank Skuse, who told the trial that the men had handled nitroglycerine.
- In 1985, a television programme revealed that the solvent Skuse had used in the test
for nitroglycerine, 1 percent caustic soda, would also have produced a positive result
if the men had handled nitrocellulose (this would suggest they were not guilty)
- In September 1990 a Home Office review concluded that there was no forensic
evidence against the six.
Jury Trials
In the history of juries, verdicts have been ‘unjust’.
Case Example - OJ Simpson
- He was arrested for the stabbing and subsequent murder of Nicole Brown Simpson
and Ronald Goldman outside Nicole’s Brentwood townhouse on June 12 1994
- He insisted he was innocent from the very beginning
- His defence lawyer Johnnie Cochran alluded to institutional racism within the police
which may have led to Simpson being arrested, which the jury had the power to
redress.
- The jury took less than four hours to reach a unanimous decision of not guilty
Case Example - Rosie James and Rachel Wenham
