Justice campaign group APPEAL has published a guide for women going through the criminal appeals system. The booklet carries the title ‘Seeking Justice: A Guide to Criminal Appeals for Women’.
APPEAL launched it at a meeting in central London. The authors spoke at the event, as did Dame Vera Baird, Chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
According to APPEAL, women with wrongful convictions must make life-changing decisions with little clear or accessible information. The group says the guide gives women in prison clear information, so they can make informed choices about appeals.
Dr Lucy Welsh, Reader at the University of Sussex, helped develop the booklet. Women with lived experience of the criminal appeals process also contributed. APPEAL describes the guide as a response to a longstanding gap. The appeals system is highly technical and complex, but reliable explanations of how it works are scarce and often hard to reach.
Years of underfunding have reduced access to specialist legal advice. As a result, more and more people face decisions about appeals. Litigants in person now make almost half of all applications to the Court of Appeal. Around 95 per cent of people applying to the CCRC have no legal representation.
For women facing a wrongful conviction or an unfair sentence, trauma, poor mental health and isolation in prison may add to these difficulties.
“Women told us they need clear, accurate information so they can make informed choices about if, when and how to appeal,” said Emma Torr, Co-Director of APPEAL. “Without that, the process feels overwhelming and out of reach.”
The guide draws on APPEAL’s research into the barriers people face after conviction. It also uses Dr Welsh’s research into how applicants experience the CCRC.
APPEAL ran focus groups with women both in prison and in the community. These showed how uncertainty and confusion affect decisions at every stage. These range from whether to appeal at all to how to meet strict time limits and evidential requirements. Women said they struggled to understand what each route involves in practice. They were also unsure about the risks, and about which outcomes are realistic.
The guide covers the different routes of criminal appeal and review, time limits, “fresh evidence” and key decision points. It explains how the Court of Appeal and the CCRC operate. It also sets out what support may be available, and where that support stops.
