Murder of Stephen Lawrence

Stephen Lawrence, a black British teenager (born 13 September 1974) from Eltham, southeast London, was stabbed to death while waiting for a bus on the evening of 22 April 1993.

After the initial investigation, five suspects were arrested but never convicted. It was suggested during the course of investigation that the murder had a racist motive and that Lawrence was killed because he was black, and that the handling of the case by the police and Crown Prosecution Service was affected by issues of race leading to an inquiry.

In 1999, an inquiry headed by Sir William Macpherson examined the original Metropolitan police investigation and concluded that the force was "institutionally racist" and has been called 'one of the most important moments in the modern history of criminal justice in Britain'.

The case is important in British legal history as it heavily contributed to the creation and passing of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 that altered the centuries-old principle of double jeopardy—which stipulated that a person could not be tried twice for the same offence.

Background

Stephen Lawrence was born on 13 September 1974 to Neville Lawrence, a carpenter, and his wife Doreen, a special needs teacher. He was brought up in Plumstead, South-East London.

At the time of his death he was studying English, design and technology, craft and physics at the Blackheath Bluecoat School and was hoping to become an architect.

Murder, trials, aftermath

The attack occurred at 10:35 pm on 22 April 1993, as Lawrence waited with a friend, Duwayne Brooks, at a bus stop in southeast London.

As Brooks called out to ask whether Lawrence saw the bus coming he claimed that he heard one of Lawrence's assailants saying: "What, what, nigger?" as they all quickly crossed the road and 'engulfed' Lawrence, who was then stabbed to a depth of about five inches on both sides of the front of his body, in the chest and arm. Both stab wounds severed axillary arteries. Although he tried to escape, he collapsed and bled to death after running 119 metres (130 yards).

It is surprising that he managed to get 130 yards with all the injuries he had, but also the fact that the deep penetrating wound of the right side caused the upper lobe to partially collapse his lung. It is therefore a testimony to Stephen's physical fitness that he was able to run the distance he did before collapsing. - Pathologist, Dr Shepherd.

Witnesses

All three witnesses at the bus stop at the time of the attack said in statements that the attack was sudden and short; none was later able to identify any of the suspects.

In February 1999, officers who were investigating the handling of the initial inquiry revealed that a woman had telephoned detectives three times within the first few days after the killing.

In 2004, the police stated: "The witness who appeared on the right of the scene and walked into Rochester Way with Stephen and Duwayne behind is very important to us. We know who this witness is, she knows who she is, we know what she knows. She has never made a statement. This witness may have been the catalyst for the attack".

A case was brought against two of the suspects, Neil Acourt, then 17, and Luke Knight, who was 16, who were initially charged with murder but the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case on 29 July 1993, citing insufficient evidence.

Private prosecution

In April 1994, Stephen Lawrence's family initiated a private prosecution against the initial two suspects and three others. The family were not entitled to legal aid and a fighting fund was established to pay for the analysis of forensic evidence and the cost of tracing and re-interviewing witnesses. The family were represented by counsel Michael Mansfield QC, Martin Soorjoo and Margo Boye who acted on an unpaid basis. The charges against the original two suspects were dropped before the trial due to lack of evidence, and the three remaining suspects were acquitted at trial when the judge ruled that the identification evidence given by Duwayne Brooks was inadmissible. Another man, named by the police only as "Phil" was also questioned at this stage.

Newspaper headlines

On 14 February 1997, the Daily Mail newspaper labelled all five of those believed to have attacked and killed Lawrence "murderers", challenging them to sue the newspaper for libel if they were wrong. The headline read "Murderers: The Mail accuses these men of killing. If we are wrong, let them sue us." Underneath this headline appeared pictures of Gary Dobson, Neil Acourt, Jamie Acourt, Luke Knight, and David Norris. To date, the men have not sued, but they have used appearances in the media to protest their innocence. The Attorney General later cleared the Daily Mail of contempt of court.

In 2002, two men accused in the Lawrence case, David Norris and Neil Acourt, were convicted and jailed for a racist attack on a plainclothes black police officer.

In July 2010, Gary Dobson was jailed for five years for dealing in drugs.

The Lawrence case influenced the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which abolished the previously strict prohibition against double jeopardy, and allowed retrials if there is 'new and compelling evidence'. As of 2010, no retrials have taken place for Lawrence's murder.

No one has been convicted of Lawrence's murder. The suspected killers, all but one now possessing additional police records, are at large and detailed on the Mail website.

New evidence

In November 2007, police confirmed that they were investigating new forensic evidence.

Legacy

An annual architectural award, the Stephen Lawrence Prize, was established by the Royal Institute of British Architects in Lawrence's memory.

His mother, Doreen Lawrence, said, "I would like Stephen to be remembered as a young man who had a future. He was well loved, and had he been given the chance to survive maybe he would have been the one to bridge the gap between black and white because he didn't distinguish between black or white. He saw people as people."

In 1999, Nicholas Kent designed and staged a documentary play based on the trial and called The Colour of Justice at the Tricycle Theatre. It was later filmed by the BBC.

On 7 February 2008, the Stephen Lawrence Centre, designed by architect David Adjaye, opened in Deptford, south-east London. A week later, it was vandalised in an attack that was initially believed to be racially motivated. However, doubt was cast on that assumption when CCTV evidence appeared to show one of the suspects to be mixed-race. It is believed that this is already the fifth attack on the building.

Public inquiries into the police investigation

In 1997, Lawrence's family registered a formal complaint with the Police Complaints Authority, which in 1999 exonerated the officers who had worked on the case of allegations of racism. Only one officer, Senior Detective Inspector Ben Bullock, was ordered to face disciplinary charges for neglect of duty. Bullock, who was second in command of the investigation, was later found guilty of failure to properly brief officers and failure to fully investigate an anonymous letter sent to police, but he was acquitted of 11 other charges. Four other officers who would have been charged as a result of the inquiry retired before it concluded.

Bullock retired the day after his punishment was announced, so that it amounted to a mere caution. Neville Lawrence, Stephen's father, criticised the punishment, saying that Bullock was "guilty on all counts." However, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Federation stated that Bullock had been "largely vindicated" in the proceedings.

That same year, while the PCA inquiry was ongoing, Home Secretary Jack Straw ordered a public inquiry. During the inquiry, Detective Superintendent Brian Weeden said that mistakes had been made during the murder investigation. Weeden, who was head of the murder squad for 14 months, admitted that until recently he had not understood the legal grounds on which police could make arrests. Results of the inquiry became known as the Macpherson Report, or the Stephen Lawrence Report.

The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report

Conducted by Sir William Macpherson, the inquiry found that the original Metropolitan Police Service investigation had been incompetent and charged that officers had committed fundamental errors, including failing to give first aid when they reached the scene; failing to follow obvious leads during their investigation; and failing to arrest suspects. The report found that there had been a failure of leadership by senior MPS officers and that recommendations of the 1981 Scarman Report, compiled following race-related riots in Brixton and Toxteth, had been ignored.

The Report also found that the police were institutionally racist and made a total of 70 recommendations for reform. These proposals included abolishing the double jeopardy rule and criminalising racist statements made in private. Macpherson also called for reform in the British Civil Service, local governments, the National Health Service, schools, and the judicial system, in order to address issues of institutional racism.

Among the reactions to the report, it has been heavily criticised by Michael Gove in The Times, who said that "The tendentious reasoning and illiberal recommendations of that document have been brilliantly anatomised by the ethical socialists Norman Dennis and George Erdos and the Kurdish academic Ahmed al-Shahi in the Civitas pamphlet Racist Murder and Pressure Group Politics." Police officers and other commentators have credited the report's discouragement of stop-and-searches of those who went on to commit further violent crimes as fueling the 30% rise in street crime in London alone.

Compensation

On 10 March 2006, the Metropolitan Police Service announced that it would pay Duwayne Brooks £100,000 as compensation for the manner in which police had handled his complaints about their actions toward him after the murder.

Alleged police corruption

On 25 July 2006, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) announced it had asked the Metropolitan Police to look into alleged claims of police corruption that may have helped hide the killers of Lawrence.

A BBC investigation alleged that the murder inquiry's Det. Sgt. John Davidson had taken money from known drug smuggler Clifford Norris, the father of David Norris, a chief suspect in the investigation. Neil Putnam, a former corrupt police detective turned whistleblower, told a BBC investigation that Clifford Norris was paying Mr Davidson to obstruct the case and to protect the suspects. "Davidson told me that he was looking after Norris and that to me meant that he was protecting him, protecting his family against arrest and any conviction," Putnam said. Davidson denied any such corruption.

The Metropolitan Police Service announced it was to open up a special incident room to field calls from the public, following the BBC documentary The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence. The Independent Police Complaints Commission later stated the claims made in the programme were unfounded.

On 27 July 2006, the Daily Mail repeated its famous "Murderers" front page.

The need to re-establish trust between minority ethnic communities and the police is paramount... seeking to achieve trust and confidence through a demonstration of fairness will not in itself be sufficient. It must be accompanied by a vigorous pursuit of openness and accountability.

On 17 December 2009 Independent Police Complaints Commission investigators and officers from the Metropolitan Police's directorate of professional standards arrested a former police constable and a serving member of Metropolitan Police staff on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice by allegedly withholding evidence from the original murder inquiry, the Kent investigation and the Macpherson inquiry. Dr Richard Stone, who sat on the Macpherson inquiry, commented that the panel had felt that; "There was a large amount of information that the police were either not processing or were suppressing" and "a strong smell of corruption". Baroness Ros Howells, patron of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, agreed; "Lots of people said they gave the police evidence which was never produced." On 1 March 2010 it was announced by the IPCC that "No further action will be taken against the two men arrested following concerns identified by the internal Metropolitan police service (MPS) review of the murder of Stephen Lawrence" and the two were released from bail.

In popular culture

• Paul Greengrass directed a movie about this event, named The Murder of Stephen Lawrence.
• The song "Cover Up" on the album Roots Controller by reggae artist Misty in Roots uses a refrain which calls the 'cutting down' of Stephen Lawrence a racial cover up.
• Benjamin Zephaniah wrote a poem dedicated to Stephen entitled "What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us" in his collection Too Black, Too Strong.
• The University of Greenwich named a building in remembrance of Stephen Lawrence as he was due to study there the following semester.
• The University of Reading named a room in remembrance of Stephen Lawrence.
• The track "In Memory" on rapper Life's album Everyday Life is about his opinions on the Stephen Lawrence murder.
• The 1998 painting "No Woman No Cry" by British artist Chris Ofili was inspired by images of Stephen Lawrence's mother crying over her son's murder.

References

• Stephen Lawrence case chronology , PBS Masterpiece Theatre
• Bullock cautioned as punishment, The Guardian

Bibliography

• Ellis, Dr.Frank, The Macpherson Report: 'Anti-racist' Hysteria and the Sovietization of the United Kingdom, published by Right Now Press Ltd., London, 2001,(P/B), ISBN 978-0-9540534-0-6
• Green, David G, (Editor), Institutional Racism and the Police: Fact or Fiction, published by The Institute for the Study of Civil Society 2000, ISBN 978-1-903386-06-4
• Dennis, Norman; Erdos, George; Al-Shahi, Ahmed; Racist Murder and Pressure Group Politics: The Macpherson Report and the Police, published by The Institute for the Study of Civil Society 2000, ISBN 978-1-903386-05-7
• Cathcart, Brian; The Case of Stephen Lawrence published by Penguin ISBN 978-0-14-027905-4

External links

• Macpherson Report
• blink Stephen Lawrence campaign
• Civitas Institutional Racism and The Police — Fact or Fiction?
• Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust
• Stephen Lawrence case: Key events following the murder of Stephen Lawrence

BBC links

• 27 May 1998 Policeman 'misunderstood law'
• 28 May 1998 Lawrence probe officer 'met parents a year late'
• 2 June 1998 'I'm not corrupt' says Lawrence detective
• 20 July 1998 Lawrence parents urge police chief to quit
• 2 September 1998 Lawrence five set for 'trial by media'
• 10 February 1999 Lawrence suspects 'face new charges'
• 10 February 1999 ITV to screen Lawrence drama
• 13 February 1999 Lawrence investigation 'seriously flawed'
• 6 May 2004 Stephen Lawrence Interview transcript and video of interview
• 24 July 2006 Lawrence police 'missed chance'
• 13 October 2007 'No corruption' in Lawrence case