Are miscarriages of justice in Portugal as rare as hens teeth?

[Mr Gray]

Well good sir your response clearly fails to address the issue I raised.
No matter; were Joana Cipriano's mother and uncle given custodial sentences for her murder? did this case not make Portuguese legal history in being the first murder conviction in Portugal without a corpse? Has a successful appeal been made to substantiate it was indeed a miscarriage of justice as you assert? On the basis of this one case you believe the English justice system to be superior despite the many cases of miscarriages of justice we have?
You may find this link of interest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_miscarriage_of_justice_cases
Whilst Wikipedia is not a definitive source it does provide an indicator. Check how many miscarriages of justice are listed for Portugal

I have already seen this site ...zero for Portugal...as I have said I don't accept Portugal has  a superior legal system so why are there no miscarriages of justice......the cipriano case was  a disgrace on many levels...torture as recognised by amnesty international and basically no real evidence apart from a confession

[Mr Gray]

Well good sir your response clearly fails to address the issue I raised.
No matter; were Joana Cipriano's mother and uncle given custodial sentences for her murder? did this case not make Portuguese legal history in being the first murder conviction in Portugal without a corpse? Has a successful appeal been made to substantiate it was indeed a miscarriage of justice as you assert? On the basis of this one case you believe the English justice system to be superior despite the many cases of miscarriages of justice we have?
You may find this link of interest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_miscarriage_of_justice_cases
Whilst Wikipedia is not a definitive source it does provide an indicator. Check how many miscarriages of justice are listed for Portugal

your post is full of errors..

I have never said the ciprianos are victims of a miscarriage of justice
I have never said that the UK justice system is superior

A little more accuracy in your posts would be appreciated

[Alice Purjorick]

your post is full of errors..

I have never said the ciprianos are victims of a miscarriage of justice
I have never said that the UK justice system is superior

A little more accuracy in your posts would be appreciated

that sounds rather odd. Considering the very poor evidence on which the Ciprianos were convicted I can't see Portuguese justice being in anyway superior

Above is what you said. If you can't see the Portuguese system being superior then it follows you see it as either equal to or inferior to. But to what? One would infer the English system but of course it could have been Uruguayan law as you you had been imprecise in what you were actually comparing Portuguese law with.
The fact that you say the Ciprianos were convicted on poor evidence implies you have read ALL the evidence.
You are aware of the link I posted but you choose not to believe the content. It seems you always have a prejudged preferred solution and work your thinking and arguments around that.

[Wonderfulspam]

They confessed.

There is that aswell.

[Mr Gray]

They confessed.

There is that aswell.

I think I would have confessed after that beating

[Wonderfulspam]

I think I would have confessed after that beating

Strange, they had confessed before the murderess got a beating.

[Eleanor]

I shall be most surprised if Amnesty International aren't in it.

[Carana]

If the McCanns had been Portuguese countryfolk with a low IQ and only 3-4 years of formal education, they would have been banged up within 2 weeks and the twins would have been placed in an orphanage.

Simple. Job done. Next promotion, please.

[ferryman]

If the McCanns had been Portuguese countryfolk with a low IQ and only 3-4 years of formal education, they would have been banged up within 2 weeks and the twins would have been placed in an orphanage.

Simple. Job done. Next promotion, please.

I am inclined to agree with that assessment, I am afraid, although I would love to be proved wrong.

[Montclair]

There are no surprises in Portuguese courts, except with perhaps a confession in front of the judge, with regard to evidence presented. If the video of João Cipriano's reconstruction was admitted, the defense lawyers knew about it. I think that it is important that posters do not forget that, in Portugal, the justice system is "inquisitorial" and not "adversarial" and that there are no Perry Mason moments in the courts rooms.

[Alice Purjorick]

As Montclair points out earlier the Portuguese system is inquisitorial where the court is actively involved in the investigation.
Are you suggesting that the entire Portuguese system is defective? Or that inquisitorial systems are defective? Come right out and say precisely what you think instead of cowering behind your syntax.
Are you not aware of the defects in our own system? I suggest you read Gareth Peirce's essays "Dispatches From The Dark Side"if you believe we do things so much better.

[Benice]

As Montclair points out earlier the Portuguese system is inquisitorial where the court is actively involved in the investigation.
Are you suggesting that the entire Portuguese system is defective? Or that inquisitorial systems are defective? Come right out and say precisely what you think instead of cowering behind your syntax.
Are you not aware of the defects in our own system? I suggest you read Gareth Peirce's essays "Dispatches From The Dark Side"if you believe we do things so much better.

We've had many a miscarriage of justice revealed in this country via programmes like  'Rough Justice' IIRC.   It would be interesting to know if there have ever been any similar TV programmes in Portugual.       

[Mr Gray]

As Montclair points out earlier the Portuguese system is inquisitorial where the court is actively involved in the investigation.
Are you suggesting that the entire Portuguese system is defective? Or that inquisitorial systems are defective? Come right out and say precisely what you think instead of cowering behind your syntax.
Are you not aware of the defects in our own system? I suggest you read Gareth Peirce's essays "Dispatches From The Dark Side"if you believe we do things so much better.

I am well aware as to the nature of the Portuguese courts. what I find odd is that according to Montclair he has never known a successful miscarriage of justice case. this seems extremely odd. I don't accept that the system is so good that there has never been a miscarriage of justice...we only have to look at the cipriano case to see how weak the evidence was here...there are other cases too that suggest miscarriages may have taken place. So why is it? we know there are miscarriages in the UK and they are publicised...perhaps Montclair could tell us why there are none in portugal

[Alice Purjorick]

I repeat from my post 10 on this thread:
Extending from that is how can one know "there never has been a miscarriage of justice"; one can only know with any degree of certainty whether or not one has been brought to light which is quite a different proposition.
How many appeals have been made in Portugal? (bearing in mind that appeals may be made by both sides in inquisitorial systems unlike in adversarial systems where the prosecutor cannot appeal). Of those how many were upheld? 
Ignoring the Cipriano case which according to Portuguese law so far is NOT a miscarriage of justice however we may feel about it as no successful appeal has been made except I believe with respect to the length of sentence (I remain content to be corrected on this).
Whether a TV programme has been made about miscarriages of justice in Portugal would be a function of whether the TV stations and their advertisers felt it would attract a big enough audience rather than any other factor.

[Eleanor]

Perhaps more to the point, does anyone ever get found Not Guilty in serious crime cases?