Truth-finding and the Adversarial Tradition: The Experience of the Cardiff Law School Innocence Project

This article draws on the experience of the Cardiff Law School Innocence Project (CLSIP) in reinvestigating cases where there have been allegations of wrongful conviction. It uses that experience to ask questions about truth-finding in a criminal justice system still strongly shaped by the adversari...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Criminal law review 2017-04 (4), p.292
Main Authors: Field, Stewart, Eady, Dennis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Criminal investigations
Criminal justice
False arrests & convictions
Judicial error
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This article draws on the experience of the Cardiff Law School Innocence Project (CLSIP) in reinvestigating cases where there have been allegations of wrongful conviction. It uses that experience to ask questions about truth-finding in a criminal justice system still strongly shaped by the adversarial tradition. Drawing on cases examined by the CLSIP, the article identifies weaknesses in the conduct of police investigations and the limited capacity of the defence to challenge the prosecution case. The attendant vulnerabilities in fact-finding are linked to the way in which the adversarial tradition has been interpreted and operationalised in England and Wales. The article then focuses on the CLSIP's relations with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and specifically CCRC responses to its applications. These suggest that the review functions of the CCRC as officially defined and interpreted do not enable it to address fully the structural vulnerabilities identified.
ISSN:0011-135X