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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Assault (Including Battery) |
Sentence: |
3 weeks suspended for 12 months |
Years Imprisoned: |
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Year Crime: |
2014 |
Year Convicted: |
2015 |
Year Cleared: |
2016 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Hong Kong |
County or Region of Crime: |
Hong Kong |
City of Crime: |
Hong Kong |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated |
Summary of Case: |
"Mark Kirkham was wrongly convicted on September 16, 2015 of assaulting a police officer on December 16, 2014 in Hong Kong. Kirkham's prosecution was based on a police report that after Kirkham and his wife were questioned outside a restaurant about a case of criminal damage, Kirkham bit the left arm of a police officer after he was handcuffed, Kirkham's defense was he acted in self-defense because one of the arresting officers was suffocating him and he couldn't breathe so he panicked. Kirkham also asserted he was disoriented because the officers hadn't told him why he was being arrested. After Kirkham was acquitted by a magistrate in the Eastern Court, the prosecution applied for review of the acquittal, and the trial judge reversed Kirkham's acquittal of biting the police officer. The judge found that the police officer didn't use excessive force, and therefore Kirkham couldn't have acted in self-defense. Kirkham was sentenced to three weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months of lawful behavior. Kirkham appealed. On July 29, 2016 Hong Kong's High Court quashed Kirkham's conviction as unsafe because the appeals court had "unjustifiably disbelieved" Kirkham's version of the incident. The appeals court noted that under the circumstance of Kirkham biting the police officer's arm while in a state of panic from not being able to breath, the bit couldn't be regarded as excessive." |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
"On July 29, 2016 Hong Kong's High Court quashed Kirkham's conviction as unsafe because the appeals court had "unjustifiably disbelieved" Kirkham's version of the incident. The appeals court noted that under the circumstance of Kirkham biting the police officer's arm while in a state of panic from not being able to breath, the bit couldn't be regarded as excessive." |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
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Age When Released: |
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Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"Hong Kong insurance broker’s conviction for biting police officer overturned: The High Court ruled that the original trial judge had failed to take defence evidence into account, By Eddie Lee (Staff writer), South China Morning Post, August 4, 2016" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1999250/hong-kong-insurance-brokers-conviction-biting-police |
Information Source 2: |
"Insurance broker, 50, acquitted of biting policeman's hand is convicted after Hong Kong magistrate overturns verdict: Mark Kirkham given suspended jail sentence after court rules that he was not subject to excessive force, By Chris Lau and Benjamin Robertson (Staff writers), South China Morning Post, September 16, 2015" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1858604/insurance-broker-50-acquitted-biting-policemans-hand |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org