As a veteran activist, Leah Levin was still delivering rousing speeches into her 90s. Her childhood escape from eastern Europe and experience of South African apartheid fuelled a lifetime’s commitment to upholding human rights. Levin, who has died aged 98, was director of the legal reform organisation Justice for a decade – between 1982 and 1992 – when it was investigating large numbers of claims of miscarriage of justice that were emerging from Britain’s prisons and courts.
Under her lead, the charity called for “an independent review body … to examine allegations of miscarriage of justice” and warned that, without reform, “it may well be necessary to consider creating a new [criminal justice] system”.
