What is a Miscarriage of Justice?

Abstract

Public and political discourses on miscarriages of justice are highly polarised. On the one hand, those committed to due process express concerns about the possible wrongful conviction of the factually innocent. On the other hand, those committed to crime control express concerns about the need to ensure that all guilty offenders receive their ‘just deserts’. Initiatively, it would seem correct that the criminal justice system should be both about the conviction of the factually guilty and acquittal of the factually innocent and that both due process and crime control should be accommodated in the delivery of justice. However, as illustrated in the following quotation taken from a successful appeal judgement, the criminal justice system does not neatly correspond with the expectations of either due process or crime control advocates as expressed in public/political discourses and can neither guarantee that the factually innocent will be acquitted in criminal trials, nor that the factually guilty will be convicted.