Research project Towards a European Right to Claim Innocence?
Normative and practical reflections on remedies for overturning wrongful convictions
From time to time, a convicted person claims that he or she is innocent. But what legal remedies are available for someone who claims his or her innocence? What legal rules and procedures are put in place to enable a wrongfully convicted person access to justice? What are the chances for someone who claims his or her innocence to actually and successfully get a new trial?
These questions – and many more! – are looked into in this project including researches from different jurisdictions (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and England – including Wales and Northern Ireland), each focusing on the procedure for exoneration in their own country. Dennis Martinsson, LL.D. in Criminal Law at Stockholm University, has not only reviewed these questions thoroughly – the project also identifies several challenges and issues associated with the current way of handling applications for exoneration in Sweden. Therefore, it is argued that there is a need for a reform of the current Swedish procedure for applications for exoneration.
Project description
Traditionally there have been possibilities for revision of wrongful convictions in civil and common law countries. However, the way countries organized their revision systems was seen as an issue of local concern. There is little academic work on the remedies in different European countries, assumingly, they seem to vary widely. Although there is an international and European right to fair trial, a presumption of innocence, and a right to appeal, there is no international or European human rights norm that obligates countries to allow former suspects to contest their convictions.
In a time of growing harmonisation and comparison of criminal procedure approaches between European countries, and in a time in which new scientific options to gather and analyse evidence were developed, the question rises whether there should also be a European right to claim innocence. Therefore, this project aims to present an oversight of the different manners in which several European judiciaries deal with overturning wrongful convictions. Therefore, the project includes researches from different jurisdictions (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and England – including Wales and Northern Ireland) to review the legal procedure for overturning wrongful convictions when all ordinary manners of judicial review are exhausted. In these reviews, the authors address the following questions:
- What legal remedies exist in the concerned jurisdiction for convicted persons to claim innocence (legal procedures and background)?
- How do these remedies unfold in practice (official and/or empirical data on the use of these remedies)?
- What problems and dilemmas are encountered in effectuation of these remedies and what lessons can be learned?
Evidently, emphasis is placed on different aspects, depending on the researchers’ expertise and the availability of data.
Project members
Project managers
Members
Nina Holvast
Assistant Professor
Sjarai Lestrade
Associate professor