Holliday, Michael
Michael Holliday was convicted in October 1996 of two counts of robbery and received a sentence of 12 years’ imprisonment on each count, to be served concurrently.
The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in April 2003.
Mr Holliday had confessed and pleaded guilty to two robbery offences.
In the case of one of these offences, the CCRC found no new evidence to throw doubt on the safety of the conviction.
In respect of the other offence, the CCRC obtained compelling evidence that another individual had committed the offence and that Mr Holliday had nothing to do with it.
This included strong new ballistics evidence.
In addition, analysis indicated that aspects of Mr Holliday’s confession had been made up. Mr Holliday had also confessed to other robberies he could not have committed, having been in prison at the relevant times.
The CCRC referred the conviction in December 2003.
The Court of Appeal quashed one of the robbery convictions in September 2005 but upheld the other, reducing the sentence of imprisonment from 12 years to ten.