Ciarán Mulholland raises questions about the safety of the conviction in the case of the Craigavon 2. Ciarán Mulholland is a Belfast lawyer and human rights and trade union activist.
The hype of the Netflix series ‘Making A Murder’ regarding the systemic flaws of the convictions against Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey raise many similarities to the case of Craigavon men, Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton who were convicted of the murder of Constable Steven Carroll in 2009.
It is shocking the impact of a professionally well produced documentary-drama can have on the public audience. Globally people are debating and campaigning regarding the abuses of the Manitowoc County Sherriff Department, their prosecutorial system and the Wisconsin State in general. There has even been a petition to President Obama for a pardon given the unsafe convictions and how they were gained.
Meanwhile there continues to be an appeasement of a dreadful miscarriage of justice in our own country. One that involves fundamental abuses of police powers, the destruction of evidence, the use of an infamous ‘Walter-Mitty’ witness, dubious informants, attempts to conceal evidence by Crown experts, the exploitation of Public Interest Immunity Orders, selective discovery, the denial of a jury and the sabotage of an appeal, to name but a few issues!
I believe everyone accused of a crime should be entitled to the presumption of innocence, irrespective of the crime and the beliefs of the defendant. There is also the necessity for the prosecution to act with integrity and present a case fairly, regardless of the Police or Security Services agendas. This was certainly not the case in the trial and appeals of the Craigavon Two. These two men are wrongfully serving life sentences and I encourage all to study the facts of this case.
“To ignore evil is to become accomplice to it” – Justice for the Craigavon Two.
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