I have never met Sandra Lean, but I assume she is convinced of his innocence, and is willing to put her reputation on the line because she is appalled at the thought of a young man having been wrongly convicted. I can't say whether she is right or wrong, but I admire her for what she has done.
I didn't know much about Sandra Lean if anything; she didn't come over well to me on the Ch5 documentary and reading through posts on the forum I see that at one stage she had a parting of the ways with Mitchell's campaign.
While agreeing with the right of prisoners to challenge their convictions as and when and if new evidence emerges I have concerns about the effects of the way in which social media is used, as in this case.
Mitchell has had a lengthy trial in which he had the best legal representation possible; he was allowed two appeals, both of which failed and there has been no further evidence justifying another.
Jodi's family are living through all of this and I think it would be appropriate for a true professional to give that some consideration when traducing their lives throughout the blogosphere between failed appeal attempts.
For example with regard to another case
"After Hall's confession last summer, her family said they finally had the closure they had desperately sought since her death.
'During the last ten years the publicity surrounding the appeals has been very distressing for our family, making moving on impossible,' they said in a statement.
'We are grateful to those who have helped us throughout this difficult ordeal.' Hall backed up his initial claim that he was wrongly convicted by submitting two applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission to consider his case.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2566264/Murderer-spent-ten-years-claiming-innocent-dead-cell-months-finally-admitting-killing-woman-79.htmlThere are many more lives affected by Sandra Lean's efforts than Mitchell's but in my opinion she doesn't appear to pay that proper regard.
