Category Archives: Middle East

FBI Agent Blasts Scottish Report Outlining Reasons Why “Lockerbie Bomber” Might be Innocent

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Mark Godsey | 2 comments

I’ve blogged here and here about questions as to whether Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, known as “The Lockerbie Bomber,” might have been wrongfully convicted, as many believe. An 800-page report by the Scottish CCRC the has identified 6 areas of concern in the case that point to innocence, including the fact that the FBI allegedly paid witnesses for their testimony. But an FBI agent, Oliver “Buck” Revell, who was in charge of investigating the case has now come out firing, claiming that the FBI never paid witnesses, and that the report is not complete or credible because the FBI was never interviewed or consulted regarding the facts. Details here. More here.

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Posted in Middle East, North America, Police conduct (good and bad), Prosecutorial conduct (good and bad), United Kingdom

What Can Innocence Reformers Learn from the Aviation and Engineering Fields?

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Mark Godsey | Leave a comment

Boaz Sangero and Mordechai Halpert of Ramat Gan Law School in Israel have posted a very interesting article on SSRN, entitled A Safety Doctrine for the Criminal Justice System (available here). The abstract states:

Criminal law, unlike other risk-creating fields, currently lacks any modern safety doctrine. In light of the proven phenomenon of wrongful convictions and the severe harm it causes to both those wrongly convicted and society, this Essay focuses on the necessary preliminary stages in developing a safety doctrine for the criminal justice system. Under our conception criminal law is a “safety-critical system”: it deals with matters of life and death. We view false conviction to be a type of accident, similarly to a crash of a fighter airplane. This comparison is not only metaphorical, but quite literal when the damage is assessed from an economic standpoint. Care and Continue reading →

Human Rights Watch: Hundreds of Innocents Railroaded in Bahrain in Joke Trials…

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Mark Godsey | 1 comment

Human Rights Watch issued a report this week revealing that officials in Bahrain have been using the ordinary criminal courts to trump up charges against innocents in politically motivated trials to crush dissent. Report here. Details here.

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Posted in Middle East, Political cases

Lockerbie Bombing Case: A Wrongful Conviction?

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Mark Godsey | 7 comments

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was convicted in the Lockerbie bombing, released a book Monday that sets forth his claims of innocence. The abstract of the book, entitled Meghari: You Are My Jury, states:

You know me as the Lockerbie bomber. I know that I’m innocent. Here, for the first time, is my true story: how I came to be blamed for Britain’s worst mass murder, my nightmare decade in prison and the truth about my controversial release. Please read it and decide for yourself.

You are now my jury. – Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

Two documentary films being released also call his conviction “Britain’s biggest miscarriage of justice,” and allegedly demolish the key witness against him. The films also shed light on exculpatory material that was not previously disclosed (what we call Brady violations in the U.S.). More here, here, and here. For a rebuttal, read this…

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Posted in Book recommendations/discussion, Film/Cinema, Middle East, United Kingdom

A Separation: Oscar Winning Film Raises Wrongful Conviction Issues in Iran

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Mark Godsey | 2 comments

A Separation won best foreign language film at the Academy Awards Sunday night. Not only is this a really interesting, well-acted movie, but the plot revolves around a possible wrongful conviction in progress. As the story unfolds, and the viewer learns more and more about the case, one gets a sense of how the Iranian criminal justice system operates. The judge in the case hears “evidence” and rules on the merits in a small office with each witness and the defendant just sort of hashing it out and arguing with each other until the judge gets a feel for what he thinks happened. In the process, questions are raised about the reliability of different forms of evidence, and how wrongful convictions can happen to anyone-even the respected and privileged in society. The bottom line is that the film is wonderful, and I’d recommend to anyone regardless of his or her interest in wrongful convictions or comparative criminal justice systems. I’m not the only one who liked it, as it got a rare 99% approval rate from the critics on rottentomatoes.com. Save it to your Netflix queue here.