Almost 900 people have had their convictions quashed or sent back to court in the past decade, including two men who say their fight for compensation has almost ruined them.
The sobering statistics – that New Zealand’s justice system has got it wrong 893 times – has one defence lawyer calling for a complete overhaul of the system and come as a further 340 people have taken their cases to the Criminal Cases Review Commission to investigate whether they suffered a miscarriage of justice.
So far the Commission, Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, set up in 2020 and replacing the Royal Prerogative of Mercy, has been inundated with applications for help.
Late last year the first case was sent to the Court of Appeal in which a teenage boy was mistakenly imprisoned because the court at the time had an incorrect birth date that made him appear older.
