In 2001, with the fiftieth anniversary of Straffen's imprisonment approaching, his solicitors called for his case to be reopened on the grounds that he had not been fit to stand trial. Investigative journalist Bob Woffinden, who examined previously confidential records, uncovered that Straffen had been reprieved after a majority of doctors who examined him found that he was insane. Woffinden also doubted Straffen's guilt in the murder of Linda, because he had no fingernails with which to cause injuries seen on her body and because some local witnesses placed the time of the murder after his recapture. However, Straffen's application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission was turned down in December 2002.