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The Justice Gap
Does Jeremy Bamber have a human right to be released from prison with immediate effect?
NG1066 may be able to assist with this question, but I imagine that if such an argument were made - perhaps to the ECHR itself - it would rest on the materiality of the recently-disclosed evidence. It needs to be appreciated that, for both justice and pragmatic reasons, there can never be complete disclosure. If there were such a requirement, the English criminal justice system would be like the Italians have, with criminal cases going on forever - bouncing back and forth between trial and appellate courts - and hardly anybody with financial resources would be convicted or punished.
Disclosure has to be relevant and there has to be finality. Justice must proceed swiftly and efficiently.
Jeremy can't base his appeal arguments on not receiving a copy of the notebook of an obscure police officer who happened to be on the scene. That's not reasonable.
That said, there is a legitimate question of whether it is appropriate for police officers and Crown Prosecutors to be making legal disclosure decisions - which even today is still the practice, if I'm not mistaken. The court is meant to be an independent failsafe, but neither the defence nor the court know what is contained in documents, and sometimes the defence don't even know what there is. Surely in the more serious cases (homicides, armed robbery, sexual offences, GBH), disclosure decisions should be reviewed by officials independent of the police and the CPS? Perhaps use should also be made of information technology to place all material deemed 'irrelevant' in a protected environment that is beyond the reach of the police and the CPS and that the defence can apply to access?