Presumed Guilty

Michael Mansfield, QC, has represented, among others, Judith Ward, five of the Birmingham Six, the Risley Five, the Winchester Three, a defendant in the Battersea bomb-factory case, one of the Tottenham Three, and a Trafalgar Square poll-tax rioter. All of them were acquitted. In this book, Mansfield sets out to demonstrate that miscarriages of justice can happen to anyone, at any time, for any offence, and to expose as a myth the belief that British justice is the best in the world. He proposes a radical agenda for reform, including the curbing of police powers, abolishing magistrates' courts, and throwing open the judiciary to all.