The Case of Sam Hallam

18 May 2012
After the big miscarriage of justice cases like the Birmingham Six, Britain might be forgiven for thinking that the criminal justice system had learnt from past mistakes and previous sloppy police investigations. But this week a young man called Sam Hallam had his murder conviction quashed by judges. This was only after spending seven years in jail for a killing he did not commit Sam is a Hackney boy. And his release owes everything to the tireless campaigning of his friends and family. But I played a small role three years ago.

In 2009, I had a meeting with the then Labour Justice Minister about the case. By then Sam had been in prison for four years. He had been convicted in 2005 of murder as part of a gang attack. He appealed in 2007 and the appeal failed. So by 2009 family and friends were pinning all their hopes of the Criminal Cases Review Commission. This was set up precisely to investigate possible miscarriages of justice . But by 2009 it was seized up with the volume of cases. Cuts in its funding had not helped the situation. Although Sam’s case had been referred to the Commission, it took seven months for the organisation to even open a file on his case. And this was considered speedy. Some cases had been waiting 18 months for a file to be opened. However, although the initial paperwork had been done, work on the case was painfully slow. Campaigners came to me to ask what I could do. I offered to go and meet with ministers and plead Sam’s case. The minister was apologetic about the delays. But I got the sense that, because Sam had lost his case on appeal, the authorities thought that they were only required to go through the motions.

The meeting may have had an effect, because the case began to grind forward. Last week the Appeal Court admitted that the investigation had been poor and his conviction unsafe. I could not have been more pleased to see Sam emerge from court surrounded ecstatic friends and family. But he was convicted when he was eighteen and has now spent more of a quarter of his life in jail. Nothing can bring those years back. And he could end up quite bitter about the way he has been treated by the system. No doubt he will get generous compensation, but when the euphoria has worn off, the adjustment to his new freedom may be difficult.

Sam was lucky. He had friends and family who were prepared to campaign for seven long years for his release. I was struck, when I met them, by their passion and commitment. But how many other young men are there put away for crimes they did not commit but without friends and family willing or able to campaign for them? Every time there is a gross miscarriage of justice, the criminal justice system claims it will never happen. But it seems that the system is as slow and unwilling to admit its mistakes as ever.

This article was first published here: http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/05/18/the-real-tragedy-behind-the-sam-hallam-case/

back ⇢