Justice for Frank Wilkinson

Frank Wilkinson was arrested for murder on March 9th 1986 and found guilty in January 1987. He has been in prison for over 24 years for a crime he did not commit - and, until July 2009, he remained a Category A prisoner all that time. Had he lied and admitted guilt, it is likely he would have been released years ago. Today, Frank Wilkinson (B.A., M.A., PhD, and winner of several Koestler awards) remains determined to prove his innocence. This fact alone should surely prompt a re-assessment of his case.

The campaign

We want to get justice for Frank. We started out with three goals, the first of which was achieved in July 2009:

1. Frank should have his Category A status immediately reviewed and amended on the grounds that:
   • he clearly presents no risk to society
   • the methods being used to assess risk (largely through offending behaviour courses) are inflexible and unfair when it comes to prisoners, like Frank, who maintain their innocence
   (Although Frank was downgraded to Category B in July 2009, it was not apparently the result of a genuine re-assessment - either of Frank or of the system - but in response to the falure of the Secretary of State's appeal against Frank's Judicial Review. Rather than be forced to amend the procedures for Category A Reviews, it has been found more convenient simply to move Frank out of the Category A estate. Welcome news for Frank - but it does little for other prisoners in a similar position.)
2. He should be actively prepared for release, on the grounds that:
   • even were he guilty, he has more than served his time
   • a prisoner should not be prevented from making progress because he maintains his innocence
   (Since his downgrade to Category B, Frank has put in a request for a transfer to a Category B prison and is awaiting a response.)
3. An appeal against his conviction should be presented to the Court of Appeal forthwith by the Criminal Cases Review Commission on the grounds that:
   • the original investigation and trial should be regarded as unsafe
   • when a prisoner goes over tariff maintaining innocence, this should automatically trigger a re-assessment of the original conviction
   (The CCRC has accepted Frank's application for a review and a Case Review Manager has started work on this. The process is not expected to be quick, however.)

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