Last July, Philip Davies, MP for Shipley, spoke to the BBC after his visit to the Florida State Penitentiary and an inspection of the death chamber there. Since the reintroduction of the death penalty in Florida in 1979, 73 people have been executed by lethal injection. He stated that he was "confident that this is the right system of justice" and anticipated its reintroduction over here. He should read "Injustice: Life and Death in the Court Rooms of America" (Harvill Secker) by English born lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, a devastating indictment of the American judicial system and that of Florida in particular.
Clive Stafford Smith has devoted his professional life to attempting to save the lives of those convicted in America and sentenced to death, not always, as he makes clear, successfully. He describes, in harrowing terms, the experience of watching six of his clients being executed. In this book, he concentrates on an account of his attempts to clear a British-born businessman, Kris Maharaj, convicted in Miami of murder and sentenced to be executed. What appears at first to have been an open and shut case becomes ever less so as Stafford Smith highlights deficiencies in the system in Florida and above all, in his clients trial.
Among his discoveries were six alibi witnesses never called by the defence lawyers, one of whom apparently slept through much of the proceedings. The first judge appointed to conduct the trial was removed because of bribery allegations and there is concern that the judge appointed in his place might have been pressurised by the real killers. It is a feature of the criminal judicial system in Florida, about which Mr Davies was so confident, that the defence only has access to police and prosecution files after conviction.
Those who would support the reintroduction of capital punishment into the UK might argue that while abuses might occur in the USA, they could not occur over here given the safeguards within our system.
They should perhaps turn to "Where Lies the Truth" by Michael O'Connell (Country Books), a considered analysis of two alarming cases in the United Kingdom. I should perhaps declare an interest in that the author, in his introduction, makes some very kind remarks about me relating to my client, the late Kevin Callan. Mr O'Connell makes the point that had capital punishment been in force when Kevin was convicted of a child murder it is more than likely that he would have been hung. As his book goes on to explore, it is of little comfort to be exonerated in the Court of Appeal posthumously.
The author, a retired barrister focuses on two appalling murders. The first case described in detail is that of George Kelly and Charles Connolly, convicted in relation to a double murder committed at a cinema in Liverpool where a lone gunman shot two men dead. The jury failed to agree on their verdicts at the end of the first trial and a decision was, surprisingly, taken subsequently to sever the two trials.
George Kelly was convicted of the murder on largely circumstantial evidence, including evidence given by alleged accomplices and sentenced to death. After an unsuccessful appeal he was executed on 28 March 1950. Following very strong advice from his lawyers at the time, Connolly subsequently pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and conspiracy to rob and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. He continued to protest his innocence until he died in 1997. Following a referral by the Criminal Cases Review Commission the convictions of both men were quashed in the Court of Appeal in 2003 [R V Kelly and another [2003] EWCA Crim2957]].
The basis of the appeal related to the non-disclosure of highly relevant and critical material by the police inconsistent with the evidence given at trial. The appeal of Kelly was not opposed by the Crown who did though oppose that of Connolly in light of his plea. The court were, however, critical of the decision to sever the two trials and held, that given what happened to Kelly, Connolly was faced with, literally, a life or death decision and his plea was based on an unsafe conviction following an unfair trial.
In his detailed examination of the case the author is very critical of the role of the senior police officer in the case, who he believes was involved in a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice which led to an innocent man being condemned to death.
In the second part of the book the case of Edward Devlin and Alfred Burns is considered. They were executed side-by-side in April 1952 for the murder of an elderly widow. Again it was a prosecution based on circumstantial evidence, heavily reliant on informant evidence following an investigation by the same senior officer responsible for the case against Kelly and Connolly. Mr O'Connell mounts a compelling case for having these convictions investigated and reviewed.
He has written a book that needs to be read by anybody concerned about our criminal justice system. Whilst the cases examined in-depth are from the 50s they are brought up to date and put in a relevant and contemporary context by reference, not only to Kevin Callan's case, but to those wrongly convicted in Cardiff of the murder of Lynette White and the collapse of the recent prosecution brought against police officers alleged to have been involved in perverting the course of justice.
We are reminded that we have no good reason to be complacent about our system or to feel superior about systems in other countries. In my view we can at least thank our lucky stars that we do have, however flawed and under pressure they may be, a Legal Aid system and a conviction review mechanism [the CCRC] and that as lawyers in the UK, we no longer have to tell our clients that there is nothing further we can do to prevent their execution.
By criminal appeals consultant, Campbell Malone