Rough Justice

Rough Justice is a British television programme that was broadcast on BBC and which investigated alleged miscarriages of justice. It was broadcast between 1982 and 2007, and played a role in securing the release of 18 people involved in 13 cases involving miscarriages of justice.

The programme was similar in aim and approach to The Court of Last Resort, the NBC TV programme that aired in the United States between 1957 and 1958. It is credited with contributing to the establishment of the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 1997.

Format
Each programme concentrated on a separate case where a miscarriage of justice was alleged to have taken place. The first, titled The Case of the Handful of Hair, was broadcast on BBC1 on 7 April 1982, and concerned a 1976 murder case. It was watched by 11 million viewers.

Related Pages

 * Rough Justice on Wikipedia
 * Trial and Error (Similar Channel 4 show)