Sam Hallam murder
conviction quashed by Court of Appeal
A man who was
convicted and jailed over the death of a man in 2004, has had his conviction
quashed by Court of Appeal.
The man, Sam Hallam,
has always denied the murder. His inability or unwillingness to say where he
was on the night of the murder, didn’t help him. Now , the Court of Appeal says
his imprisonment was based on an unsafe conviction. In 2004, the Metropolitan
Police didn’t follow up all the leads which would have proved his innocence.
For instance; they didn’t use his cell phone to check his whereabouts and the
eyewitness account was based on “a
fleeting glimpse”, so there was the possibility of mistaken identity. The victim died , after being stabbed in the
head, in an attack by a group of youth,
Sam Hallam belonged to that group. Several other members of the group were
convicted to. Sam Hallam was liberated after 7 years of prison.
Sam Hallam’s family
waged a campaign for justice for years, which finally resulted in his release. A good thing for the family; there efforts
were rewarded. The Metropolitan Police regret mr Hallam’s unsafe conviction and
he added that certain lessons had to be learned for police and the criminal
justice system. What the news article didn’t mention is if Sam Hallam was one
of the killers or not. The only thing we know is that he was imprisoned while
not all the evidence was thoroughly investigated. This lead to his release this
week.
This is an example of the fact that, although police is doing their work as best as they can, they can sometimes be wrong and make mistakes. There must always be some kind of supervision. On they other hand it is strange that this man didn't help the police in stating his whereabouts on the night of the murder.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI couldn't agree more with anne marieke! It's not police worthy to not trace all the whereabouts of this man but if he didn't do it, why wouldn't he just tell them were he was at the night of the murder?!
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