On 3rd April 2011, Michael Burdett, Consultant with Hanne & Co's Criminal Department, appeared on BBC Four's Retrial By TV: The Rise & Fall of Rough Justice. Rough Justice was a long running BBC TV series which investigated alleged miscarriages of justice. It aired between 1982 and 2007. The series achieved the overturning of convictions of 18 people in 13 separate cases. Rough Justice also contributed to the establishment of the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 1997, an independent body created to review possible miscarriages of justice and refer appropriate cases to the appeal courts.
Retrial By TV: The Rise & Fall of Rough Justice featured the case of Michael Burdett's client Mervyn Russell. In December 1983 Mervyn Russell walked free from prison having served 6 years of a life sentence for a murder he did not commit. He was the first person in Britain to have a conviction quashed as a result of a single TV programme. In 1982 the first Rough Justice programme "The Case of the Handful of Hair" covered Mervyn Russell's story. The Rough Justice programme and Mervyn Russell's defence team gathered and presented fresh evidence to the Court of Appeal which quashed his conviction.
Speaking of the programme Michael Burdett said "the programme shows just how far we have come since the days of ‘Life on Mars’, but we should not be complacent because the CCRC is losing funding. I am very proud that Hanne & Co helped to pioneer this change of attitude towards miscarriages of justice”.
The solicitors at Hanne & Co are able to advise and assist on many complex areas of criminal law. For more information, please visit our website.
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