Murder of Stephen Lawrence

"Stephen Lawrence" redirects here. For other people named Stephen Lawrence, see Stephen Lawrence (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Murder of Philip Lawrence.

Murder of Stephen Lawrence
Well Hall Road, Eltham, in 2006, near the scene of the crime.
Date22 April 1993
LocationWell Hall Road, Eltham, England
Coordinates51°27′41″N 0°02′58″E / 51.46132°N 0.04955°E / 51.46132; 0.04955[1]
Racially motivated attack

Stephen Lawrence (13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993) was an 18-year-old black British citizen from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus on Well Hall Road, Eltham, on the evening of 22 April 1993.[2] The case became a cause célèbre: its fallout included changes of attitudes on racism and the police, and to the law and police practice. It also led to the partial revocation of the rule against double jeopardy. Two of the perpetrators were convicted of murder on 3 January 2012.[3]

After the initial investigation, five suspects were arrested but not charged;[4] a private prosecution subsequently initiated by Lawrence's family failed to secure convictions for any of the accused.[5] It was suggested during the investigation that Lawrence was killed because he was black, and that the handling of the case by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was affected by issues of race. A 1998 public inquiry,[6] headed by Sir William Macpherson, concluded that the original MPS investigation was incompetent and that the force was institutionally racist. It also recommended that the double jeopardy rule should be repealed in murder cases to allow a retrial upon new and compelling evidence: this was effected in 2005 upon enactment of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The publication in 1999 of the resulting Macpherson Report has been called "one of the most important moments in the modern history of criminal justice in Britain".[5] Jack Straw said that ordering the inquiry was the most important decision he made during his tenure as home secretary from 1997 to 2001.[7] In 2010, the Lawrence case was said to be "one of the highest-profile unsolved racially motivated murders".[8]

On 18 May 2011, after a further review,[9] it was announced that two of the original suspects, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were to stand trial for the murder in the light of new evidence.[10] At the same time it was disclosed that Dobson's original acquittal had been quashed by the Court of Appeal, allowing a retrial to take place.[11] Such an appeal had only become possible following the 2005 change in the law, although Dobson was not the first person to be retried for murder as a result.[12] On 3 January 2012, Dobson and Norris were found guilty of Lawrence's murder;[13] the pair were juveniles at the time of the crime and were sentenced to detention at Her Majesty's pleasure, equivalent to a life sentence for an adult,[14] with minimum terms of 15 years 2 months and 14 years 3 months respectively[15] for what the judge described as a "terrible and evil crime".[16]

In the years after Dobson and Norris were sentenced, the case regained prominence when concerns of corrupt police conduct during the original case handling surfaced in the media. Such claims had surfaced before, and been investigated in 2007, but were reignited in 2013 when a former undercover police officer stated in an interview that, at the time, he had been pressured to find ways to "smear" and discredit the victim's family, in order to mute and deter public campaigning for better police responses to the case. Although further inquiries in 2012 by both Scotland Yard and the Independent Police Complaints Commission had ruled that there was no basis for further investigation, Home Secretary Theresa May ordered an independent inquiry by a prominent QC into undercover policing and corruption, which was described as "devastating" when published in 2014.[6][17] An inquiry into whether members of the police force shielded the alleged killers was set up in October 2009.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Macpherson C1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ BBC News (1997). "Straw Announces Inquiry into Lawrence Murder". BBC News. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
  3. ^ "Stephen Lawrence murder: A timeline of how the story unfolded". BBC News, 7 March 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  4. ^ BBC News (31 July 2006). "Lawrence detective denies claim". BBC News. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
  5. ^ a b BBC News (5 May 2004). "Q&A: Stephen Lawrence murder". BBC News. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
  6. ^ a b "Sir William Macpherson's Inquiry Into The Matters Arising From the Death of Stephen Lawrence". Official Documents Archive. 24 February 1999. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
    (see also summary: "Lawrence: Key recommendations". BBC News. 24 March 1999. Retrieved 5 January 2012.)
  7. ^ "Justice at last for Stephen Lawrence". The Times. 4 January 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  8. ^ "Lawrence murder suspect jailed for dealing". The Independent / Press Association. 9 July 2010. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  9. ^ "Lawrence: Killers Face Jail As Parents Speak". 4 January 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  10. ^ BBC News (18 May 2011). "Stephen Lawrence pair face murder trial". BBC News. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  11. ^ "Joint CPS and MPS statement on Stephen Lawrence case". Crown Prosecution Service. 18 May 2011. Archived from the original on 21 January 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  12. ^ Double jeopardy man is given life, BBC News. 6 October 2006.
  13. ^ Dodd, Vikram; Laville, Sandra (3 January 2012). "Stephen Lawrence verdict: Dobson and Norris guilty of racist murder". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
  14. ^ "R v DOBSON & NORRIS, Sentencing Remarks of Mr Justice Treacy, 4 January 2012" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  15. ^ Sandra Laville and Vikram Dodd (4 January 2012). "Stephen Lawrence murder: Norris and Dobson get 14 and 15 years". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  16. ^ Ritchie, Alice (5 January 2012). "Lawrence killers jailed for 'terrible and evil crime'". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  17. ^ "Stephen Lawrence: the shaming of the Met". The Guardian. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 22 October 2020.