More than ten years ago I started writing a book on Dutch miscarriages of justice in which I had been involved. I wanted to explore the personality issues in three such cases. In each case, it seemed to me that aspects of the character of the main protagonist led to them being something of a scapegoat of a system under great stress. Some trigger events caused a bad situation to become an utter disaster. Authorities made mistakes and could not admit them, so errors were compounded, and there was no going back, no way to change path any more.
In recent posts, I have told a lot of the story of José Booij. It’s time to start writing about Lucia de Berk and Kevin Sweeney.
Concerning Lucia de Berk there already is an enormous literature. The case started in 2001, seemed to be closed with Lucia in jail for life by 2006 (conviction by the lower court at the first trial in 2003, appeal to higher court failed in 2004, cassation – appeal to the supreme court – failed in 2006) but at that time also a strong movement burst into the public view, calling for a judicial review and a retrial. Lucia was fully exonerated in 2010. The role of statistics in the case is well known though controversial since at the 2004 appeal, she was convicted “on the grounds of incontrovertible medical scientific evidence only”. A “statistical probability calculation” (such as the infamous calculation leading to the spectacular 1 in 342 million) played no part at all in the court’s conclusion, according to her judges.
Yet many things have still not been said in public about the case, except perhaps in literary form. In my future book, I want to say things I have said many times before in ephemeral blog posts, and other removed or hidden web pages.
Concerning Kevin Sweeney, not much has been written at all. He sat out his sentence for the murder of his wife and keeps a low profile.