We need to understand the factors that contribute to miscarriages of justice, to prevent them occurring in the future.
Te Kāhui Tātari Ture is governed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission Act 2019. Section 11 of the Act sets out the Commission’s primary function, which is to ‘investigate and review convictions and sentences and decide whether to refer them to the appeal court.’
Section 12 of the CCRC Act provides that Te Kāhui Tātari Ture has the power to initiate and conduct inquiries into general matters identified in the course of performing our primary role that may be related to cases involving a miscarriage of justice, or that may have the potential to give rise to such cases. In the course of our work, we have identified a range of systemic issues which we consider have the potential to contribute to wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice in Aotearoa | New Zealand. The Commissioners have decided to commence an inquiry into one of these issues, eyewitness identification evidence (see below). Te Kāhui will also continue to track other systemic issues in parallel with the inquiry.
