Crackdown on conviction appeals

All criminal reviews face a rigorous procedure

People who try repeatedly to get their criminal convictions overturned may be stopped from doing so in future.

The body which investigates alleged wrongful convictions wants to stop wasting time where there is no new fresh evidence available.

Convicted criminals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland submit appeals to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

But if rejected any further application will not now be treated as new unless it is different from the previous one.

The CCRC says the new rules will cut the time spent examining cases.

Duplicate application

When an offender applies to the CCRC, an officer is assigned to their case and assesses whether it should go to the Court of Appeal.

We receive two or three applications a day...We're not saying we don't want new applications, we just don't want the same applications Boris Worrall, CCRC spokesman

Until now if this is rejected the convicted criminal can make another application, which triggers off the same procedure and is recorded as new even if it is exactly the same as the previous one.

In one case an offender simply photocopied their initial submission and sent it off as new, and other re-applications have been re-written with identical or very similar information on the form.

Offenders must now submit new evidence, such as DNA, witnesses or new legal arguments, with regard to changes in the law, that were not put before the courts at their trial or appeal - otherwise the application will stay with the previous one.

'Unsafe conviction'

CCRC spokesman Boris Worrall says: "We receive two or three applications a day. We're not saying we don't want new applications, we just don't want a rehash of the same applications.

"This requires a re-allocation of officers and more administrative work, time and effort. We can only send cases back to the Court of Appeal if there is a real possibility that the conviction will be found to be unsafe.

"You have to show there is something the court hasn't seen before which raise any new issues."

Since the end of March last year the CCRC received 900 applications, 110 of which were re-applications.

Between April and September 2003, almost 28% of re-applications were secondary or similar applications.

But in the last seven years 13 re-applications were referred to the appeal courts which resulted in six convictions being overturned.