Wrongful Convictions and Post-Conviction Review: Barriers to Access-to-Justice in the Nordic Countries

Abstract All the Nordic countries offer individuals who claim to have been wrongfully convicted the possibility to apply for post-conviction review. The research on wrongful convictions has however often discussed the risk that those cases that are identified, i.e., those cases of post-conviction review that lead to exoneration, are not representative of wrongful convictions as a whole. Moving from this background, this article provides an overview and comparison of the systems of post-conviction review in the Nordic countries, and problematises this description from an access-to-justice perspective with the aim of examining the obstacles wrongful conviction claimants may face when they attempt to pursue this review remedy. On the basis of the parameters used in this article to study accessibility of the review systems, Finland is emerging as the country with the least accessible system, whereas the Norwegian system is the most accessible, followed by that of Iceland. It is not entirely evident how Sweden and Denmark should be ranked in relation to one another however. The results are discussed from a transparency point of view, since detailed information that allows for an analysis of practice appears to be lacking in at least three of the Nordic countries.