When a conviction becomes the subject of investigation
Convictions Gone Bad with Will Mellor examines five miscarriages of justice through the people affected and the evidence that challenged their convictions. The Crime+Investigation series follows Mellor's earlier programmes about failures and abuses within policing, widening the question to what happens after an innocent person is sent to prison.
The cases concern Angela Cannings, Andrew Malkinson, Justin Plummer, Sam Hallam and the Central Park Five. They involve different crimes and circumstances, but the programme links them through mistakes, assumptions and the difficulty of persuading institutions to reconsider an established account.
New evidence and lives that cannot simply be restored
Cannings' story concerns the deaths of her children and the prosecution that followed. Malkinson's chapter examines a conviction he repeatedly contested, while Hallam's follows the reappraisal of a murder case against a teenager. The series combines the original investigations with the subsequent effort to uncover or reconsider evidence.
Mellor's broadcaster interview stresses the aftermath as well as the eventual release. Years in prison alter family relationships, trust and the possibilities of ordinary life. By giving the falsely accused a voice, the programme asks what accountability and repair can mean when a judicial decision is overturned but lost time remains irrecoverable.
