Overturning a Wrongful Conviction: Moving Firms Didn’t Stop These Mishcon, MoFo, Latham and Ropes Lawyers

Harriet Slater recently spoke with The Lawyer, a UK legal publication, about a pro bono project MoFo has been involved in, assisting APPEAL, a UK charity and law practice dedicated to fighting miscarriages of justice, in its role helping to overturn Andrew Malkinson’s life sentence for attempted strangulation and rape.

A pro bono team from Morrison Foerster supported APPEAL in its representation of Mr. Malkinson in his two-decade pursuit of overturning his conviction, for which he received a life sentence and spent over 17 years in prison. He was convicted in 2004; however, Mr. Malkinson always maintained his innocence. His case was referred to the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) of England and Wales in January 2023 as new DNA evidence was obtained, linking the crime to another man.

Following an appeal hearing on Wednesday, July 26, 2023, the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction, and Mr. Malkinson left the court as a free man.

Speaking to The Lawyer about the case and some of the challenges, Harriet Slater said:

“Early on, we started with limited documentation and hard copy files that Andy had kept. We were also trying to look at the laws back in 2003 and take stock of what we had to do. But we were missing a lot of documentation and were always trying to think of other avenues.”

Harriet also noted that, upon joining MoFo mid-case, she was pleased to be able to continue working on the project.

“When I arrived at MoFo I said I’d need more manpower on the case and it was fantastic to get this signed off,” she recalled. “It was a testament to our firms that we could do this. Client work is important, but pro bono is equally important.”

Read the full article (subscription required).