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Lawrence family via PA / AP, fil
Gary Dobson and David Norris were found guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, above, at the Old Bailey in London on Tuesday.
LONDON - A jury found two men guilty on Tuesday of murdering a black teenager in a brutal assault that shook Britain to its roots nearly 20 years ago.
Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, had denied killing Stephen Lawrence, who was attacked by a gang of five youths and stabbed to death in southeast London in 1993.
Prosecutors had claimed that blood, hair and fibers traced to Lawrence were found on Dobson and Norris' clothes, proving their involvement. The defense had claimed the evidence was contaminated.
The jury deliberated for three days at the Old Bailey courthouse before announcing the verdict Tuesday.
The initial charges against three of the five youths in 1993 were dismissed following a mishandling of evidence by police.
Change in criminal law
The case has marked a seminal moment in race relations in the UK and has helped modify recent British criminal law.
Crown Prosecution Service / Reuters
Gary Dobson (left) and David Norris (right) had denied killing Stephen Lawrence in 1993.
Two internal police inquiries acknowledged police were not vigorous in pursuing evidence. And a public inquiry, the McPherson Report (1999), led to recommendations in recognizing race-based hate crimes.
The McPherson Report also went a step further in acknowledging that racism was an institutional feature of London's Metropolitan Police and recommended that race relations legislation should not only apply to the public but also to the police force.
Additionally, Britain's double jeopardy law has been revised to allow a suspect to be tried for a second time over the same crime if new evidence comes to light. With the advances of DNA technology, prosecutors were able to call for a review of evidence against Dobson and Norris this year.
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Leave a Comment:
amazing how they put this on the news when whites fall victims to blacks everyday to robbery and murder!i dont understand why the media doesnt report the black on white violence hardly at all when it happens at an alarmingly higher rate?
rusty-2418164
Most crimes by Blacks are on other Black people, but I agree that the 'hate crime' prosecutions should be more broadly based and not essentially limited to White on Black crimes.
"Britain's double jeopardy law has been revised to allow a suspect to be tried for a second time over the same crime if new evidence comes to light."
That makes a lot of sense to me - especially on murder cases. Most other crimes have a statute of limitations.
Amazing you write such bullsh!t when the facts show otherwise.
Rusty- That's definitely a fair and often cited point. But when it comes to media bias I think it's a point that's similar to saying the sky is blue. You're right, but so what? There are plenty of stories that go unpublished simply because of race. Take for example a non-white child or person going missing. 9 times out of 10 you can bet it's not going to be in the news. But a pretty white girl or white child goes missing and it's as if the world must come to a screeching halt to stop and find out what happened to them..'We've got to find little kailyn!!!!!!'
Hope to see you point out more unfairness in similar stories.
How many white families have stood around as if at a circus watching men women and children of African Descent lnyched? How many African Americans and American Indians were murdered where no grave or indentification is know...You are the product of this racist society that America was formed...Theif of land near genicide of it's inhabitants, reservations, slavery..What world are you from....I suspect you are of the dying breed of humanity that sees itself immune from any wrong doing and the first time their are reprucussions to your actions you scream foul! Join the human race and acknownledge the crulities that humankind has put apon one another....Murder, Greed, racism, segregation, these are just a few of our short comings...But it is the people who denie and past the blame who are empty in side without honor or truth in their souls
LOL!
Hey, Rusty ----- Sure, you understand. The media, or at least certain elements of same, have an agenda and shall not be diswayed from same just because the facts do not agree with their viewpoint. But the pendulum is about to swing back in the opposite direction and common sense and justice shall once again take hold. In this particular case, justice arrived tardy, but it did finally arrive. What would the U.S. citizenry think of having someone (previously found not guilty) retried based upon NEW EVIDENCE ? That does not appeal to me. I would prefer that we stick with our present system and rely upon the prosecution to be competent.
Rusty This is England, not the USA. What do you know about England?
Rusty,
If black on white crime is as commonplace as you say, then why should it be news?
Uh, Rusty, regardless of race - white on black, black on black, black on white - it's nearly always men. Ever notice that? So it's not race that's at fault. It's gender. But of course it's not politically correct to point that out, now, is it?
This was a cover up by white law enforcement and its system. It's not that it's white on black or black on white. It about a system that is racist and discriminatory against people of color. It's about law enforcement that took the life of a man and no one did anything about it for years because it was covered up.
amazing how they put this on the news when whites fall victims to blacks everyday to robbery and murder!
I don't think it's a matter of playing favorites, what matters here is the equal application of the law.
You kill someone and you should go to prison, it doesn't matter who the victim was. In this case the law was not applied equal because of the race of the victim. Regardless of which race commits crime more often, it doesn't justify the unequal application of the law.
Say that you are right, and that 99 percent of all crime are committed by black people, that somehow means it's okay for a white person to randomly kill an innocent black person without consequence? What kind of warped world are you living in?
I think the real story line to this is "After 20 years DNA provides justice".
That would not be as exciting....hate crime!! White on black crime!!! That gets all the heads to turn.
World news?It's sad. I guess it'd be bigger news here where they could lead with "hate crime" in giant font
It's not only a story about how a young black man was murdered , it's also the fact that the met police screwed up investigating - a main point of the MANY inquiries was that the police were institutionally racist towards black people and this particularly during this investigation. They could have had this case wrapped up years ago if they'd done their job right. I'm white, from the UK and disgusted at what Stephen Lawrence and his family suffered for 18 years. Watch BBC's Panorama for the full story - emotional stuff.
I remember when this happened - it's taken 20 years, but justice has been served.
Usually, if they have enough to come back on someone with DNA evidence it’s pretty much an open & shut case. Think about all the money it cost to do that stuff. If someone is MURDERED and, their Blood DNA is on YOUR CLOTHING, you should just get used to a NEW and ECXITING LIFE STYLE of PRISON. From what I heard, if you’re a nice looking and kinda’ mamby-pamby like these guys, you’ll get free cigarettes if you act right. LOL...
Usually, if they have enough to come back on someone with DNA evidence it’s pretty much an open & shut case. Think about all the money it cost to do that stuff. If someone is MURDERED and, their Blood DNA is on YOUR CLOTHING, you should just get used to a NEW and ECXITING LIFE STYLE of PRISON. From what I heard, if you’re a nice looking and kinda’ mamby-pamby like these guys, you’ll get free cigarettes if you act right. LOL...
@Karen - you're right that justice has been served; however, these racist creeps have had 20 years to live their lives, be with their families, etc., while the young victim had no such opportunities. The blame, of course, is on the two found guilty of this crime, but the racism of the police is also to blame. (Not so different from here in the states.)
That DNA stuff is a real “MOTHER” huh? You can’t just go around and kill innocent Kids.
was Rumpole their lawyer at Old Bailey? Is so, he should have won an aquittal.
I hope they enjoy their new roles as prison cum buckets.
Yes, that would be something to put on one's resume for sure!
I guess it is so common place when a group of blacks kill a white that it is no longer newsworthy.
And name one case when a group of blacks ganged up and killed a single white and got away with it for years? I thought so...
I'm one of the world's biggest Anglophiles, but, of late, they've truly tested my loyalty to the "old sod". Please note, among other things, that this case not only provoked the British to adopt "hate crimes" laws (i.e., "we value all life equally, except some we value more...") but also to revoke the (unwritten) Constitutional prohibition against "double jeopardy". Goodbye, Magna Carta. Thankfully, America's Constitution is written and it's a tad harder to upset 800 years of tradition and legal precedence.
I'm not for the guilty going free, but I do believe that the law is more important than any particular, individual case result, but, in this case, the authorities determined, for political reasons, to throw away the protections of Englishmen, in order that they might obtain a conviction 36 years after the fact. Blackstone would be appalled.
A very sad and disturbing case, more than that, even sadder disturbing comments.
I am shocked! I thought I would see a bunch of self-loathing white people posting about how racist white people are. Well they are, but no more so than the next race, it's just the nature of the world. I am happy to see these guys are finally paying for the senseless murder of another human. It took way to long in my opinion.
If the media would just put two men found guilty of murder after 20 years and not put race at all you hating as%$@%s would not be posting. The time has come to drop the race issue. Black or White get a damn life. The media reports the races to keep this going. All of you are eating this stuff up. All crimes should be treated as equal and not a Hate Crime depending on race. I thought justice was blind. Black on White or White on Black ALL of you Grow the F up.
Wonderful to see, "The times they are a changin..."