Imagine being wrongly jailed for over a decade and later asked to pay a fee for staying in the prison. It could be shocking for many, but a victim of wrongful conviction in the United Kingdom is facing this in reality.
According to reports, the British government has informed the victims of wrongful conviction that they would now be required to pay for “bed and board” fees during their time in prison.
The UK government has ruled out reimbursements for some victims of miscarriages of justice after the ‘bed and board’ fees were deducted for the imprisonment period from their compensation payments, according to a Guardian report.
Some victims of historic miscarriages of justice have been told by the government that ‘bed and board’ costs for the time they spent in jail will be deducted from their total compensation, the report added.
This was also applicable to the high-profile case of Andrew Malkinson, who had been unlawfully imprisoned for 17 years.
Andrew Malkinson served 17 years in prison after being falsely convicted of raping a woman in Salford, Greater Manchester, in 2003. Despite being cleared of all charges, he will have £1,00,000 (Rs 1,06,88,639) deducted from his remuneration to cover the bed and board fees, according to a BBC report.
Former Justice Secretary Alex Chalk abolished the policy of deducting living expenses during the imprisonment period from the compensation paid to the victims of wrongful conviction last year, after the Andrew Malkinson case caught the attention of all sections of society.
However, the government’s new move reverses this adjustment, imposing a financial burden on people who have already faced considerable injustice.
According to the BBC, Andrew Malkinson, whose case spurred the policy change, spent nearly two decades in prison before being formally cleared by the Court of Appeal in July 2023. Reportedly, he has urged for a reform of the jury and appeals systems to provide more protection to wrongfully convicted individuals.
Even though the government pays the full amount without deducting the living costs during the jail term, Andrew will have to wait for up to two years for compensation until the independent board, which evaluates the compensation amount, takes a final decision.
A similar case of another wrongfully imprisoned person came to light recently in the United States. Kris Maharaj, a British citizen of Indian descent, died in a US prison hospital after remaining behind bars for 38 years for a crime he did not commit. He was 85 when he passed away. Kris Maharaj was wrongfully convicted in 1986 for the murders of Derrick and Duane Moo Young. His death sentence was changed to life imprisonment in 2002. He was proclaimed innocent in 2019, but remained in jail when a US Court of Appeals ruled that the evidence supporting his innocence was insufficient to release him.
Comments
0 comment