Error of Judgement: The Truth About the Birmingham Bombings

This book is written by journalist and British Member of Parliment Chris Mullin and deals with the notorious Birmingham Six case. Mullin was for long in the forefront of those calling for the case to be reopened and arguably did more to procure their eventual release than any lawyer did.
This book is a tale of human error, skulduggery, and incompetence on the part of police, prosecutors, forensic experts and judges at every level and on such a scale that it almost beggars belief. It shows how the appeal process all too often can become a sham with the court not being open-minded to the receipt of new evidence.
Mullin mercilessly exposes how prosecution-minded and malign appellate judges can be when they have a mind not to do something. Attempts to bring a civil action against West Midlands Police for assaults upon the men while in custody provoked the notorious off-the-cuff, but all the more revealing for that, remark by Lord Denning: "Just consider the course of events if this action is allowed to proceed to trial. If the six men fail, it will mean that much time and money will have been expended by many people for no good purpose. If the six men win, it will mean that the police were guilty of perjury, that they were guilty of violence and threats, that the confessions were involuntary and were improperly admitted in evidence and that the convictions were erroneous. That would mean the Home Secretary would either have to recommend they be pardoned or he would have to remit the case to the Court of Appeal. This is such an appalling vista that every sensible person in the land would say: It cannot be right these actions should go any further."
Luckily for the Birmingham Six, Lord Denning's "appalling vista" was eventually realized when all the wrong doing was eventually accepted as having happened.



After a trip to Ireland I wanted to know more about the problems in Northern Ireland. One of my many cousins sent me home with his copy of Proved Innocent by Gerry Conlon which is about people wrongly convicted of being in the IRA and bombing two pubs in England. This is sort of a follow-up in that here were more people convicted of a series of bombings who were in fact innocent. Back then the UK was down with beating confessions out of people and these two books bear that out. If you're of Irish heritage this is important history. While were talking about it, England gave India back to Indian people (good work Mahatma!), and Hong Kong back to China, time to give Ireland back to the Irish!