The Modern Miscarriage
Our past is a warning label, not a museum. The systems that failed people before can fail people again, and often do - quietly, routinely, and with paperwork.
Kane Livingsron
7/3/2025
Today the rope has been replaced by the workflow. The courtroom drama has become a bureaucratic grind. And the public is encouraged to believe that miscarriages of justice are old ghosts - rare, historical, safely resolved.
They are not.
In May 2025, Peter Sullivan walked out of prison after his murder conviction was quashed, following new DNA work that did not match him. He had spent nearly four decades inside. No repayment can buy back that time. No official phrase can return the birthdays, the funerals, the quiet ordinary years that make a life. [1][2][3]
That case is not a freak accident. It is a flare in the dark. It reminds us how easily a narrative becomes a verdict, and how long it can take for science, persistence, or sheer luck to puncture it. It also shows something colder: the system can be wrong for a very long time and still keep moving, still collecting compliance, still insisting it is “robust”.
Outside the criminal courts, the same logic plays out in smaller theatres: sanctions issued because a box was ticked; planning decisions that reward connections; complaints “investigations” that read like copy-and-paste; enforcement that costs thousands to recover hundreds.
These are not separate problems. They are the same culture: authority speaking, the individual proving.
References
[1] Associated Press. "A man wrongfully imprisoned for 38 years weeps as a UK court overturns his murder conviction." 13 May 2025.
[2] The Guardian. "Peter Sullivan has murder conviction quashed after 38 years." 13 May 2025.
[3] ITV News Granada. "Merseyside man to be freed after 38 years in prison as conviction quashed after new DNA evidence." 13 May 2025.