However, just found and article (written some time ago) in the Guardian that states: "The Lord Chancellor's Department's statistics on successful appeals against criminal conviction show that in the decade 1989-1999 the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) abated over 8,470 criminal convictions - a yearly average of 770.
The most recent figures available show that 12% of criminal convictions are overturned on appeal.
I had no idea so many innocent people were and are convicted. Yikes!
Don't forget that in a number of cases the appeal will have succeeded because the original conviction was deemed to be unsafe. Unlike the Scots, we don't have a "not proven" verdict, so technically these 12% could be regarded as "innocent", but in reality some of them will have got away with a crime through lack of persuasive evidence or occasionally because of some technicality.