Hansard

Acquittals

Volume 461: debated on Monday 4 June 2007

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Mr. Marsden

To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many people who were jailed in the United Kingdom for (a) murder and (b) manslaughter have been subsequently found innocent by the Court of Criminal Appeal and released from prison since 1987. (139767)

Ms Harman

The following table shows the number of people whose conviction for (a) murder and (b) manslaughter was quashed by the Court of Appeal Criminal Division between 1996 (the first year for which reliable figures are available) and 2007. For cases which involved an order for retrial, the final result is not known.

Conviction quashed; no order for retrialConviction quashed; retrial orderedTotal convictions quashed

Murder1

Manslaughter1

Murder1

Manslaughter1

1996

1

—

4

—

5

1997

9

4

6

1

20

1998

20

5

21

4

50

1999

12

5

4

—

21

2000

8

2

7

2

19

2001

11

1

6

—

18

2002

14

4

6

1

25

2003

22

1

9

2

34

2004

14

4

14

1

33

2005

12

4

8

1

25

2006

15

7

5

4

31

20072

1

—

3

—

4

1 Also includes inchoate offences

2 1 January 2007 to 30 April 2007