The Cardiff law students who
Dwaine George was found guilty of shooting dead a teenager and languished in jail – until 12 years later Cardiff students proved he was innocent and helped clear his name. Thomas Deacon caught up with the people behind the Innocence Project
IN 2001 teenager Daniel Dale was chatting with friends in the street when he was shot dead.
A bullet hit the 18-year-old in the back and went into his heart, after shots were fired indiscriminately at the group he was with.
A murder investigation was launched after the shooting in Manchester and police eventually arrested Dwaine George.
After being found guilty of murder at trial, Dwaine was sentenced to life in prison.
A key strand of the prosecution case against him was the discovery of “gunshot residue” on a coat found at his home which a forensic expert said showed the coat had been present at a shooting.
He always denied his involvement in the incident and said he was eating at a friend’s house when the shooting happened.
Despite protesting he wasn’t involved, in April 2002 Dwaine was found guilty at Preston Crown Court of murder, attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
He appealed the verdict two years later, but had his case rejected by three judges.
It seemed as though he would end up serving the life sentence for the crime he consistently denied committing.
But 12 years later a group of Cardiff University Students managed to overturn Dwaine’s conviction, clearing his name.
Now more than 15 years after the killing, the team behind the overruling have spoken about the experience and their Innocence Project looking at potential miscarriages of justice.
Cardiff University professor Julie Price, who heads the Cardiff Law School Pro Bono schemes, said: “We were looking for ways of introducing our students to real client work and this idea of an Innocence Project had recently come to the UK in Bristol University, introduced by Dr Michael Naughton.
“Cardiff is still the only university innocence project to overturn a conviction. The system is stacked against us really.”
“When you hear that people on a jury think if they make the wrong decision as a juror it can be overturned, the reality is that it is virtually impossible in our experience.”
Professor Price and Dr Dennis Eady, who run Cardiff ’s Innocence Project, were joined at the Royal Courts of Justice in 2014 by 30 Cardiff law students, past and present, to hear the result of the students’ investigative work.
When looking to overule a conviction, judges will want to see new evidence instead of going over what was already heard in the original trial.
During the appeal Dwaine’s counsel argued that since the original trial there had been a major change in modern forensic analysis, according to the Manchester Evening News.
There were also similarities with the case of Barry George who was cleared of the murder of Jill Dando.
Applying the new standards, the tiny amount of material found on the coat could not have any evidential value, Mr Wood said.
He put forward evidence from an expert, Angela Shaw, who said it was not enough to support the weak identification evidence in the case.
Ms Shaw found only two particles on the coat which could be said to be gunshot residue, whereas two others could equally have come from fireworks.
There were also doubts as to identification evidence and Sir Brian said it was “not fanciful to suggest that the evidence relating to what was called gunshot residue was seen by the jury as providing important independent support for the weak visual identification.”
After the new evidence came to light through the Innocence Project, the judges unanimously agreed that the conviction was no longer safe and should be quashed.