Hackney man wrongfully convicted of murder launches new fight for compensation

Sam Hallam with his mother Wendy Cohen.

A Hackney man whose murder conviction was overturned has joined forces with fellow exonerees in a renewed battle for compensation.

Sam Hallam is part of a new campaign, led by human rights groups Appeal and Justice, calling for a “cruel” legal hurdle to be scrapped.

Since 2014, people cleared of crimes must prove their innocence beyond all reasonable doubt to be eligible for compensation — even after the courts have overturned their convictions.

According to Appeal, the test means fewer than seven per cent of applicants are compensated.

Hallam said: “It goes completely against what this country should stand for.”

Along with fellow exonerees including Seema Misra, Patrick Maguire and Brian Buckle, Hallam is urging Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood to scrap the test.

As part of the campaign, called #PayUp4TimeSpent, Appeal is running a petition that can be signed by members of the public.

Hallam was jailed for life in 2005, when he was just 17 years old, in connection with the death of Essayas Kassahun a year earlier.

But in May 2012, after Hallam had spent seven years in prison, appeal judges decided the conviction was unsafe and he was released.

Halllam’s subsequent bid for compensation for a miscarriage of justice was rejected at the Court of Appeal in 2014, and again at the Supreme Court in 2019.

In July 2023, Hallam took his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

It ruled last year that although the UK’s compensation test was “almost insurmountable”, it did not violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

You can sign Appeal’s compensation petition here.