A miscarriage of justice is normally a systems failure, and not because of any conspiracy

The cock-up theory usually explains when things go wrong

One accusation that is often made of anyone with an interest in possible miscarriages of justice is that they are “conspiracy theorists”.

In reality, however, you do not have to posit a conspiracy to explain when things go wrong with the legal system.

In particular, what happens in the justice system is that the safeguards and checks which exist to prevent or minimise miscarriages of justice sometimes do not work properly.

Just as a conspiracy can perhaps explain a car accident, the explanation is more likely to be brakes failure, or driver error, or so on. One or two things go wrong, and then the whole thing crashes.

As some Medieval chap put it, explanatory factors should not be multiplied beyond necessary.

*

Indeed, a number of not directly connected people acting in concert to achieve a common goal is what is required for the justice system to work consistently properly.

And we all know unlikely that is.