Bill to quash hundreds of wrongful convictions over a Post Office scandal goes before UK Parliament

abcnews.go.com:

The British government has introduced legislation to quash the wrongful convictions of hundreds of Post Office branch managers in England and Wales who were caught up in one of the United Kingdom’s biggest miscarriages of justice

LONDON — The British government introduced legislation Wednesday to quash the wrongful convictions of hundreds of Post Office branch managers in England and Wales who were caught up in one of the United Kingdom's biggest miscarriages of justice.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the legislation “marks an important step forward in finally clearing” the names of those who were convicted on the basis of a faulty computer accounting system, known as Horizon, and who have faced long delays in having their compensation claims assessed.

“We owe it to the victims of this scandal who have had their lives and livelihoods callously torn apart, to deliver the justice they’ve fought so long and hard for, and to ensure nothing like this ever happens again," he said.

Under the terms of the bill, which is expected to become law by the summer, convictions will be automatically quashed if they meet certain conditions, including if the cases were brought by the state-owned Post Office or the Crown Prosecution Service.

The convictions must also relate to alleged offenses, such as theft, fraud and false accounting, committed between 1996 and 2018, by anyone using the faulty Horizon software. More than 700 so-called subpostmasters were prosecuted by the Post Office and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015.

Those with overturned convictions will receive an interim payment with the option of immediately taking a fixed and final offer of 600,000 pounds ($760,000). Those who suffered financially but