The Devlin Committee was a
UK committee based on the Devlin report of 1976, which looked at a number of
criminal
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...
cases in order to draw conclusions on the method of
visual identification of suspects. The committee was established to follow on from the investigations into the wrongful accusation of
Adolf Beck by the
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Courts of England and Wales#Senior Courts of England and Wales, Senior Courts of England and Wal ...
in 1907. The Devlin report submitted to the committee was made after a number of cases where identity parades led to the mis-identification of a suspect. These included
Adolf Beck,
Oscar Slater,
Luke Dougherty and
Laszlo Virag, cases ranging from 1908 to 1972.
Although the report uncovered a number of cases where innocent individuals were wrongly convicted, particularly in the case of Laszlo Virag in 1969, who was identified by 8 witnesses despite a plausible alibi, and Luke Dougherty who was picked by 2 witnesses but later cleared under similar circumstances. While the Devlin committee did rule that many witnesses overstated their ability to single out the right person, Professor Glanville Williams commented on the report that:
The Devlin committee and its actions were highlighted in the media more recently, in 2005, following the shooting of
Jean Charles de Menezes
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and the rapid growth of an eye-witness reports that were later found to be exaggerated or false.
[BBC new]
article
''The problem with eyewitnesses'', Finlo Rohrer, 24 August 2005. Retrieved on 25 April 2007
A previous Devlin Committee was appointed by the
Ministry of Labour
The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...
in October 1964 to look into disputes, decasualisation and dissension in the port transport industry. It reported in July 1965. Both committees were chaired by the
Law Lord
Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...
Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin, hence the name.
Notes
Criminal investigation
Public inquiries in the United Kingdom
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