Kwame Boateng Sekyere
Kwame Boateng-Sekyere is a trainee barrister with a passion for criminal and social justice reform. In conversations with barristers while at Gray’s Inn he learned that there is increased pressure on barristers to take forward cases on a pro-bono basis, due to the lack of funding for criminal appeals cases. He became increasingly aware that people were being left with sentences and convictions that could have been overturned if legal aid had been available to them.
Kwame’s work connects lawyers with funders to address this funding gap in the criminal justice system. The Ideas and Pioneers Fund stood out because it is an open funding stream that works with people in the early stages of their ideas. Through consultation with Paul Hamlyn Foundation and barristers, Kwame’s initial idea evolved from attempting to fund individual lawyers on a case-by-case basis to creating a system for identifying key cases to fund. The cases that are selected are those that could have a significant impact on the criminal justice system, for example those that offer fresh evidence, or that have the potential to set a precedent for future cases.
The broader ambition of the project is to evaluate and reform the criminal justice process in the UK. It examines new questions such as how we use new technologies as evidence, as well as rethinking the old, such as how we understand victimhood: Kwame raises the example of how a court should consider a child used for drug trafficking. Kwame’s aim is to show how lives can be transformed when people have access to legal aid and can fully exercise their right to appeal.
How it all began
Now that you’ve read how far Kwame has come, you can see how it all started. Watch the video Kwame submitted to apply to our Ideas and Pioneers Fund.
