High priority: Six high-profile cases head the waiting list for review

JAMES HANRATTY

Hanratty was hanged 35 years ago but police have concluded he was wrongly convicted of shooting Michael Gregsten and raping and shooting Gregsten's girlfriend, Valerie Storie, leaving her paralysed. A 400-page submission for the case to be referred to the Court of Appeal was presented to the Home Office in 1994, but the Office washed its hands of the case.

DEREK BENTLEY

Bentley was hanged, aged 19, for the murder of a police officer during a robbery in Croydon, south London. The bullet was fired by Christopher Craig, 16, who was too young to be hanged. Bentley was alleged to have shouted: "Let him have it, Chris", but Craig, who was released in 1963, denied that. A 55-page dossier is said to show Bentley was "feeble minded".

STEPHEN CRAVEN

Craven, 28, has served seven years of a life sentence for murdering 19-year-old Penny Laing on Christmas Eve 1989. She slapped a man's face for making an offensive remark at a club; he struck her with a glass which shattered on impact with her neck. Fingerprint evidence showing the glass carried a print not belonging to Craven was not disclosed by police.

THE CARDIFF THREE

The Cardiff Three - Darren Hall, Michael O'Brien (pictured) and Ellis Sherwood - were jailed as teenagers for the murder of a newsagent, in 1988. Not to be confused with an earlier Cardiff Three who the appeal court cleared of murdering a prostitute in 1992, the three were arrested after Hall confessed under police interrogation, in an echo of the Bridgewater case.

THE M25 THREE

The M25 Three - Michael Davis (pictured), Raphael Rowe and Randolph Johnson - were convicted in 1990 for a murder and violent attacks. The three convicted men are black, but victims had described the assailants as two white and one black. However, upholding the convictions in a 1993 appeal, Lord Justice Watkins said the case remained "formidable".

'DANNY' McNAMEE

Gilbert "Danny" McNamee was sentenced in 1986 to 25 years for conspiracy to cause the 1982 Hyde Park grandstand explosion. The blast killed four Household Cavalrymen and seven horses. After his conviction, the self- confessed IRA terrorist Desmond Ellis claimed he had made the bomb used in the park. McNamee has repeatedly protested his innocence.