#Lawyers express reservations over landmark legislation to exonerate postmasters. @CrimeLineLaw

Lawyers express reservations over landmark legislation to exonerate postmasters

Senior lawyers have expressed concerns about landmark legislation to exonerate hundreds of postmasters. Dominic Grieve KC, a former attorney general, warned the move could create constitutional ructions as it meant the legislature was going over the heads of senior judges. He also expressed fears that some legitimate convictions would be overturned by the emergency statute. Robert Buckland KC, a former Conservative lord chancellor and justice secretary, said the move “must not create a legal precedent”. Lord Macdonald of River Glaven KC, a former director of public prosecutions, was even more sceptical. He told Times Radio the problem with an act of parliament was that “it’s constitutionally very awkward” and it would mean “that some people who are in fact guilty will be exonerated. That’s the price the government is prepared to pay. And that’s really, I think, a political judgment.” Nick Emmerson, president of the Law Society, said that while the proposals were welcome, “such an exceptional scheme can only be justified in these very extraordinary circumstances. It cannot be treated as a precedent or justify further government intervention in the independence of our justice system”. Lord Falconer of Thoroton, who was lord chancellor in the Blair government, welcomed the announcement because “the exceptional nature of the suffering inflicted on the subpostmasters justifies this exceptional bill”. The Times

Calls to amend law on computer evidence following Post Office scandal The Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has been urged to scrap a law that was backed by the Post Office and requires courts to presume that evidence derived from a computer is reliable. Current law stipulates that courts should presume a computer system has operated correctly unless there is explicit evidence to the contrary. It replaced a rule that prosecutors using evidence derived from computers had to verify that the system it came from was working correctly. It was introduced in 1999 by the then Labour Government following a Law Commission recommendation. Kevan Jones, the MP who has led the campaign to clear the sub-postmasters, told The Daily Telegraph: “The way in which computers are classed in court are both archaic and more or less says they can never be wrong. It takes no consideration of software or coding issues. The law needs to be changed. I understand there have been calls for this from members of the judiciary who are aware the law is outdated. It is not just Horizon, it is similar with bank fraud cases.” The Daily Telegraph

Rape conviction rates plummet as prerecorded evidence fails Senior lawyers told The Times that a bid to increase rape convictions by allowing prerecorded evidence is failing and has actually resulted in acquittals rising. Barristers at the Criminal Bar Association argue that anecdotal experience of trials where prerecorded evidence is allowed “has limited impact on cases” where there is a significant amount of additional evidence given “live” in court. They added that in rape and sexual offence cases that involve one party’s word against the other, when a complainant gives prerecorded evidence “juries are tending to acquit more frequently”. The barristers say that justice ministers rolled out the scheme across crown courts in England and Wales “before there was any empirical data on the impact” of prerecorded evidence. According to the association, “there is a real need for very close revision” of the process of giving evidence in court, adding that prerecording of evidence had “been pasted onto it, with good intention, but without the infrastructure to make it workable in practice”. The Times