news.sky.com/story/andrew-malkinson-man-who-spent-17-years-in-jail-for-crime-he-didnt-commit-wont-have-to-repay-prison-living-costs-12934302
Andrew Malkinson: Man who spent 17 years in jail for crime he didn't commit won't have to repay prison living costs
Reminds me of a story in the original secret barrister book, where a guy was acquitted after 17 years by DNA evidence (which the cps had sat on for about 10 of those years).
He was given about £20 for the bus journey ‘home’ and that was all. Of course he had no home, his wife had left him and no friends after 17 years. Much of his family had passed away. No life skills or experience for getting a job. All because someone had wrongly accused him of 17 years before, and CPS admin didn’t get round to releasing the exonerating evidence.
That’s absolutely abhorrent
I recommend reading the secret barrister. So many aspects of our justice system are messed up. I didn’t know before that, that a magistrate’s court is just completely unqualified members of the public who can hand out prison sentences. Literally anyone can be a magistrate after going through a short training course. Then you can sentence people to a prison sentence with little to no oversight.
In their defence, there are limits to that - each offence has legally-defined parameters for what sentence can be given depending on severity, intent and the offender's responsibility level and circumstances. It's all publicly available on the sentencing council website (it is actually easy to access, not a 64 page wall of text).
Magistrates also have a court clerk, who is legally qualified, to advise and guide them and anything they're not sure about can be passed to the crown court or the district magistrate.
I actually push people to become magistrates - we need more diversity because at the moment, it's just retired white men. I want more working/lower class people to apply, because they have lived experience of poverty and crisis.
Court clerks (legal advisors) are failed lawyers who never made it in private criminal practice (or didn't even get offered a job) so they have to take whatever shitty jobs the MOJ has on offer in order to give their overly expensive training some meaning. They take absolute glee in arguing with barristers and having undue influence over cases as they know its the only power they're ever going to have.
Yeah, I've yet to have a positive interaction with a clerk but I can't deny that they're knowledgeable where they need to be and capable of providing the advice that the magistrates need
I'm getting a distinct feel that you're not terribly impressed with the magistrates courts.