ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ways in which biometric identification has featured in criminal appeals and other reviews of criminal convictions. It also discusses the innocence projects, judicial inquiries and review commissions that have used biometrics in their efforts to uncover the truth about past crimes. The most obvious way in which biometrics can feature in a criminal appeal is by way of linking someone other than the appellant to the crime. In view of the limits on criminal appeals, some jurisdictions have engaged in law reform to allow second or subsequent appeals to its Court of Criminal Appeal. Innocence projects generally limit themselves to cases where deoxyribonucleic acid may be available. The chapter reviews some of the most significant miscarriage of justice cases in Australia where forensic evidence, such as biometrics, played a substantial role either in the initial prosecution, or in the appeal or other review that followed it.
