Stephen Lawrence
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Stephen Lawrence (September 14, 1974 - April 22, 1993) was a black British teenager living in London, UK, who was murdered in April 1993 at the age of 18.
While waiting at a bus stop with his friend Duwayne Brooks, he was attacked and stabbed by a group of five white teenagers. It was not the first such attack, but the publicity it received turned the case into a major national issue that threatened to cause civil disturbance and severely damaged relations between the Afro-Caribbean community, the Police and justice system.
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Stephen Lawrence
Born in Britain in 1974 to Jamaican parents, Neville and Doreen, he was a student hoping to become an architect. After he was attacked, Stephen tried to escape but collapsed and died after 200 yards. Stephen was stabbed twice in the chest with a weapon that caused a wound five inches deep cutting major arteries and collapsing a lung.
At the time of writing (2004) no-one has been convicted of Stephen's murder. The Crown Prosecution Service brought a case against two suspects but dropped it on July 29, 1993 after deciding that there was insufficient evidence. A private prosecution in April 1996 against three other suspects, brought by Stephen's family, failed when they were acquitted due to unreliable identification evidence. In February 1997 the Daily Mail newspaper labelled the five suspects "Murderers", and challenged them to sue for libel. To date, they have not done so but have used appearances in the media to protest their innocence.
The possibility of amending UK law by act of parliament to allow a new trial was supported in principle by the former Home Secretary David Blunkett but it seems unlikely that it would be possible to frame a bill of this type.
An annual architectural prize, the Stephen Lawrence Prize, has been established by the Royal Institute of British Architects in Stephen Lawrence's memory.
Quote by Stephen Lawrence's mother
"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." — Doreen Lawrence
Macpherson Report
(Also known as the "Stephen Lawrence Report")
After two police inquiries found no cause for concern, the new Home Secretary Jack Straw ordered a public inquiry in 1997.
The inquiry, carried out by Sir William Macpherson, found that the Metropolitan Police Service investigation had been incompetent, that officers had committed fundamental errors including failing to give first aid when they reached the scene, failure to follow leads during their investigation, failure to arrest suspects, and a failure of leadership by senior officers. The inquiry found that the recommendations of the Scarman Report of 1981 following riots in Brixton and Toxteth were ignored.
However, beyond this, Macpherson found that the police were institutionally racist and made a total of 70 recommendations for reform in his report dated February 24, 1999.
Macpherson also called for reform in the British Civil Service, local government, the British National Health Service, Schools and the judicial system to address issues of institutional racism.
External Links
- Macpherson Report (http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm42/4262/4262.htm)
- blink Stephen Lawrence campaign (http://www.blink.org.uk/subsections.asp?grp=14)
See Also
- UK topics
- Matthew Shepard -- American homophobic murder with parallels to the Stephen Lawrence case
- Kris Donald -- British racist murder with parallels to the Stephen Lawrence case