I suppose it is a ‘good thing’ that some (if not all) of the culprits involved in the murder of Stephen Lawrence in Eltham, have been finally brought to book.
Mrs. Lawrence was very quick to criticise the police following the jury’s guilty verdict yesterday, and I reckon that she is completely right here, the police should have brought these thugs to trial, found them guilty and gaoled them at the time.
However, I am not that enamoured by the manner in which this verdict has been achieved, and I reckon that the far reaching implications of this ‘trial’ are very dangerous for liberty and justice in England.
First, if one can, can we please dispense with the ‘racist’ tag which has been used relentlessly by the media in regard to both the perpetrators and the police. Murder is murder, and if anything the police’s inability to bring a convincing prosecution at the time, says more about their incompetence than their ‘institutional’ racism. There were then, and are now, plenty of cases of murder that are badly investigated and fail to achieve a conviction, or even come to court, the racist bit is surely a bit of a red herring, even if it was part of the motivation behind the crime.
Anyway, here is my real problem, this is one of the first prominent cases where a defendant has had to defend himself twice on the same charge. Since Magna Carta, Englishmen have been free to go about their business following a successful defence of a case brought against them in court, unless of course they admit guilt unilaterally at a subsequent time. Prior to the “Criminal Justice Act 2003″ there was a concept called double jeopardy, which meant that once tried for a crime, one could not be tried again for the same crime.
OK, occasionally there might be a guilty man amongst us, but the idea makes a lot of sense. Firstly, it ‘should’ ensure that the prosecuting authorities, take great pains to do their jobs and prepare their case with due diligence. Secondly, it should mean that a suspect will not be pursued by the authorities for the rest of their life.
I must say that I am a bit surprised that more ‘constitution/magna carta’ bloggers have not covered this corruption of our rights.
N.B. There is an excellent well researched report and history of this case which has recently appeared by Ms. Anna Raccoon here, I recommend it.
It’s a comment on how easily the law has been perverted on very dubious political grounds.
The law, freedom, truth, anything worth fighting for, we will have to keep fighting to preserve these things with every generation full of people eager to forget everything we’ve learnt. This was one such battle that was lost
But the truth of the matter was lost as well, and instead of anything close to the truth, all we can hear is this chorus of self-congratulation and pomposity in the media. Anna Raccoon’s post is important reading, as is what you have said
Which came first, the problem or the solution? Lukcliy it doesn’t matter.